Promise me forever
by Carroline17
Summary: 'Wh…what did you just say' Elena's heart beamed with happiness as she saw the joy underlying Damon's reaction. She swallowed hard and answered him: 'I love you, Damon Salvatore' She truly, deeply did… 'I think I've always loved you…'Set after S2 ep 22
1. Frozen

**Author's note: I know it's a bit late to start my own story of how Season 3 of the Vampire Diaries should be like, but my curiosity and desire to write won despite my better judgement. Given the fact that I'm a huge Delena fan, my story will focus mainly on Elena and Damon scenes, but I'll also try to keep up with the action involving Stefan, Bonnie, Caroline and the other main characters of the TV show. This is my very first story so I'm both nervous and excited. I just hope that I live up to the readers' standards, so I'm going to do my best to regularly update my story and to entertain all of you that are interested. I hope you enjoy it! The first chapter is a bit too short for my taste, but the following chapters are definitely going to get longer, as the action intensifies. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries. My story centres around the characters of the TV show that belong to their rightful owners (TV script by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec) and of Vampire Diaries series written by L.J. Smith. I do not intend any infringement upon any music that might inspire chapter titles or parts of my story.**

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><p><strong>1. FROZEN<strong>

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><p>Elena felt like she was frozen. She couldn't move – not even an inch. Not even when something in the back of her mind was forcefully trying to win this internal battle and convince herself that her doppelganger's words had simply been a lie. She had known Katherine well enough by now – she knew what a monster she often was. Elena had realized that whatever her vampire copy did was to torment her, because she was still so blindly in love with Stefan.<p>

_Stefan_… Elena internally cringed at the thought of her boyfriend's name. She quickly took her cell phone out of her pocket and desperately wrote a few words, sending her message to Stefan: _Damon's fine. Where are you?_ And then she felt the hand which was holding the phone dropping lazily to the side of her body and she was suddenly in a trance-like state. The words that had left Katherine's mouth just seconds ago turned into agonizing echoes which were reverberating in her entire body, trying to take control of her.

'_He's paying for this – he gave himself to Klaus.' _

As breathing became harder and harder for her fragile human body, her chest involuntarily started going up and down in hard, loud movements. This couldn't be happening… She was sure it had been just another cheap trick that Katherine pulled so as to ruin their perfect moment. _Their perfect moment_ …Oh my God – she had almost forgotten about Damon.

She turned her head a few inches to her left only to see a still-in-pain Damon forcefully trying to get out of bed, although he was obviously still hurting. Before Elena could say a word, she saw Damon gather all of his strength and finally pull up from the damp sheets underneath him. His entire body cringed at his feeble attempt of quickening the heeling process and a second later he found himself in Elena's arms after he shot to the ground in an abrupt fall.

'Elena… we need to find her – she knows where Stefan is…' Damon muttered under his breath, although he intended it to sound more urgent than it had just done.

'_I wouldn't expect him home anytime soon…'_

How could she look in Damon's blue eyes and tell him that she thought – no!- felt, that Katherine had, for once, told the truth? She felt Damon shift in her arms to reach out and turn her chin to his face. He pierced her chocolate-brown eyes and told her under his breath 'She's lying, Elena, that's what Katherine does. Stefan would know better than to give himself up like that…'

There it was – one word from Damon that could easily bring Elena's rapidly growing heartbeat a bit lower. What if Damon was right? Stefan wasn't a fool – he couldn't possibly agree with the things that Klaus did, let alone join the vampire in his pursuit to become the strongest being alive. And Stefan loved her enough so as not to leave her alone – not after everything they had been through and especially not like this. No, there had to be another reasonable explanation. But the words were hurtfully coming down in waves and destroying any hope of her waking up from this nightmare.

'_He just sacrificed everything to save his brother, including you.'_

Elena felt her heart literally crack into pieces at the realization that Stefan had actually sacrificed himself for his older brother – not to mention that he had so easily chosen to willingly leave her behind, to give up on her love after he had so many times called her the reason for his existence. Elena_ should have understood_ – it had been the right thing to do – she would have done the same thing for Jeremy. But who was she trying to fool? She felt deserted, empty. Images of all the people that she had lost started dancing in front of her eyes: her parents, Isobel, Jenna, John. She had almost lost Damon as well, and now Stefan had left her all alone. Elena felt she couldn't take it any longer – she was going to crash if someone didn't help her.

That's when Damon's voice got her out of her painful reverie: 'Hey, snap out of it… Elena, look at me! You don't really believe her, do you?' Damon asked with a more energy in his voice. The hopeless look that she gave him made the vampire freeze in his position as he realized as well that the little bitch had told nothing but the truth and that Stefan was really gone. Elena then stared at him with a lifeless expression and it was like he wasn't even there, like she was actually looking _through_ him. His confused look turned into a worried one as he quickly shifted their position – Damon was now the one who was comforting Elena as she was lying motionless in his arms.

'_It's a good thing you have Damon to keep you company.'_

'He's gone, Damon…' her voice came out in a weak tone.

'Shhh…It's going to be okay, Elena, I promise you this…'

The feeling that was growing in Elena when she found herself in Damon's arms and being gently caressed by him made her want to cry both with happiness and sorrow. More than anything in the world, she felt safe when she was with Damon – it was as if she sensed that his commitment to her would never break, that he would protect her even if he had to go to the end of the world and back for her. More than safe, she felt loved as well.

_Where's Stefan? she had asked Katherine. _

_Are you sure you care?_

That was the last straw – Elena suddenly felt her tears rapidly flowing down her cheeks, unable to stop her uncontrolled sobs. As Damon's arms tightened even more around her body, she felt herself buried in all the regret and guilt that was pouring out of her. She regretted not being there for Damon, for he was surely not feeling that much better so as to put up with her hysterics right now – but, sure enough, he never said a peep, as if sensing that it would only aggravate things. He just stood there with his arms wrapped around her now-trembling body and waiting for her to let it all out.

But, more than anything else, Elena felt the guilt written all over her skin, deeply penetrating into her body. She hated herself for what she had done to Stefan - that is, kissing Damon earlier while her boyfriend was out there saving his older brother. She hated herself for not being able to stop Stefan from doing this, to reason with him. But most of all, Elena hated the feeling of warmth and comfort that she was sinking into while she was pressed that way to Damon's body – for it was the proof that Katherine's words actually held yet another cruel truth.

'_Oh, it's okay to love them both – I did.'_

With these words swirling in her head, Elena took one look at Damon's face and tried to tell him something, but simply couldn't find the strength in her to do so. Instead, as she saw Damon's worried eyes gazing into hers, Elena felt the last shred of power leaving her system as she fell into blissful unconsciousness.


	2. Leave out all the rest

**Author's note: Ok, so I guess I could say - So far so good! I want to give my special thanks to lapointe15 and MyGeekSide-101 for their encouraging reviews - hope I won't disappoint you guys - I'm doing my best not to. I think I read this chapter at least 10 times before I posted it - I couldn't quite figure out the most suitable title for it. I eventually settled down to inspire myself from Linkin Park's fantastic song - 'Leave out all the rest'. I'm happy that I managed to make the second chapter at least two times longer than the first one. Anyway, thanks a lot for reading and I hope you enjoy it!**

**Disclaimer: Sadly enough, I do not own the Vampire Diaries. My story centres around the characters of the TV show that belong to their rightful owners (TV script by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec) and of Vampire Diaries series written by L.J. Smith. Also, I do not intend any infringement upon any music that might inspire chapter titles or parts of my story.**

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><p><strong>2. LEAVE OUT ALL THE REST<strong>

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><p>Damon felt as if the entire world had come crashing down upon them. Never in his life had he felt both so relieved and hopeless. He had been granted a second chance when Katherine had brought him the cure for his werewolf bite and he was truly grateful – grateful that he could have at least one more day of his miserable and heart-wrenching life and grateful that he could see the sun rise once again. But most of all, Damon was grateful that he could once again hold the love of his life in his arms like this, that he could feel warmth overflowing from her strawberry-flavored skin, that he could hear the frantic heartbeats in her chest and that, maybe, he would one day have another chance to tell Elena how much she really meant to him.<p>

As Damon kept his arms around Elena's trembling body, he thought about everything that Katherine had said. He didn't understand why she would start telling the truth right now, but, like Elena, he could feel deep down that she was right. Damon couldn't pretend that he wasn't grateful to the little bitch for saving his life, although the timing had been more than inappropriate. He lingered one more second on Elena's pained expression before she had lightly kissed his lips a few minutes ago. Damon thought he had seen something more than just the pain of losing a friend on her face, but he wouldn't get his hopes up – after all, he _was _dying and she was good enough to make his last moments sublime. He remained in this memory a split second more before he abruptly returned to the reality which both Elena and he had to face.

Damon realized that he had never been very good at doing something like this – holding a girl in his arms whilst she cried her heart out. But it seemed that Elena was slowly calming down, even though the tears were still coming down her pink cheeks in little rivers. He didn't even know what to say to her, let alone what to do. He couldn't lie to her – anything, but lie to her. What they had was special because of their shared sincerity and he wouldn't do anything to change that. But Damon was desperate about not being able to make Elena's pain go away and, for a moment, he even considered ripping the necklace filled with vervain from her throat and compelling her to make it all easier for the poor girl. He quickly let go of that thought though, as he remembered the last time he had done so and all of the pain that had come with his decision.

When Damon thought that the worst part was already gone, he felt Elena try to move and saw her wet swollen brown eyes look at him pleadingly. The vampire was hugging her so tightly that their faces were mere inches away from one another. Damon could see every shadow on her face and every unshed tear in her eyes. He froze seeing Elena's cherry-red lips move just an inch as if she wanted to say something to him. He felt disappointment overflow him as the weakened girl couldn't utter one single word and then panicked as he saw Elena's eyelids close and her body losing all of its former control.

At first, Damon couldn't even move – he was too afraid that he would break her, for she was so fragile in this moment. He heard himself call her name, pleading her to stay awake, to be strong, but then his mind took over his emotions. He had the familiar sense of déjà vu when it came to this scene. A few seconds later, Damon remembered the way Elena had passed out when he had saved her after the car accident last year. He gently lifted her up and placed her on the couch next to his wardrobe. He focused on her heartbeat and breathing, lingering on them for a few seconds until he was sure everything was ok. He then gently, but rapidly started checking her entire body for any broken bones or signs that she had been physically hurt. He knew that it was more than senseless, since Elena had been with him the entire night, but he continued the procedure thoroughly, like a doctor would treat his patient.

Relieved with the negative result of his investigation, Damon realized that he couldn't just let Elena sleep on his couch the entire night. Feeling his body slowly recover from the liquid that he had ingested, he went over to the bed and changed the damp sheets with fresh ones. He then went back to Elena, took her shoes off and carefully picked her up so as to take her to the bed. After putting two pillows under her head and covering her cold body with a fluffy blanket, he started taking Elena's long, silky hair out of her face. At the sight of two small cuts in her neck Damon's fingers froze with fear. Not because he thought that another vampire had bitten her, but because he was certain that Elena hadn't yet recovered since the sacrifice. The small dots truly seemed to be healing, but Damon would surely ask Elena about this after she woke up – he needed to know what had really happened there.

Seeing Elena finally look at ease in her sleep, Damon started to coolly put things into perspective. He needed to call everybody and let them know what had happened – the sooner the better. And he needed to figure out what had happened with _him_ all night long – the last memory he had was of being locked in the basement by his baby brother after he had tried to take away his life. The rest were bits and pieces, which didn't help him understand the whole picture either. And then there was the last part of the evening which was crystal clear, since it involved Elena staying with Damon and taking care of him.

As much as he tried, the vampire simply couldn't get something out of his head – his brother's face. Damon honestly wondered how could Stefan be such an idiot. Well, that was his natural self – the martyr type, the knight in shining armor who would leave everything behind so as to save the people he cared about. Stefan was a lot like Elena in that department – they didn't care who they hurt as long as they got to save their beloved ones. And it seemed that Damon was always left behind to deal with the collateral damage. That didn't bother him – he had actually grown accustomed to it. What he hated was the intense feeling of guilt that was eating his insides. His brother had sacrificed everything – including _Elena_ – to save him. Stefan had left the person he loved most behind so as to rescue _him_. Damon realized what he was experiencing – gratitude mixed with shame and guilt. He was ashamed of himself for the way he had tortured Stefan in the past and also guilty because of his undying love for his brother's girl. Damon couldn't help it though – he loved Elena in an innocent way which he hadn't believed to be possible.

Damon thought about his brother a little more, but then he pushed Stefan's image in the back of his mind – he had to come back to the present. Before Damon was going to pick up the phone to call anyone, he simply had to do something more important first – take a long, hot shower. He dropped all of his clothes on the bathroom tiles and entered the shower, leaving all of his worries outside as well. It was the only moment when he could pretend that nothing had gone wrong and that nothing had made his life so complicated as it now was. A few months ago he would have easily gotten over the suffering and sense of hopelessness by shutting off his emotions – after all, it was the best cure for every sane vampire. But things weren't the same, he had changed and now he was trying to recover his humanity – and all of this was due to Elena. He quickly got rid of these thoughts – he simply wanted to be at peace, to only be with his inner self. 'God, now I'm starting to sound like a freakin' yoga master.' Damon thought. The only connection that he still kept with the outside world was to carefully listen to Elena's breathing, just to make sure that everything was under control – as much as it could be.

When the water stopped, Damon forced himself to get out of the bathroom, wearing only a pair of blue trousers that he had stashed away somewhere in there. Fortunately, he was feeling much better, as he could sense tiny bits of his former power coming back to him. Just as he was preparing to pick up his clothes and sheets from the floor, he heard Elena's phone ring. Using his vampire speed, he was next to the mobile phone in one quick second and in another one he answered it, waiting to hear Bonnie's voice on the other end.

'Hey, there, witchy…How's it going?'

'….Dd.d..amon? Is that really _you_?'

'Oh, come on… don't tell me you're not happy to hear me…You're breaking my heart.'

'Oh my God, Damon, it really _is_ you!'

'Well of course it's me. Who _else_ would be answering Elena's phone in the middle of the night?'

Bonnie could see Damon's well-known smirk over the phone. She silently smiled at his comment, but continued in a serious tone. 'Well, Stefan, of course… Anyway, I'm so happy that you sound fine! Wait a second… _why_ are you answering Elena's phone in the middle of the night?'

'Now there's the spirit, Bonnie! I was starting to think that you actually grew fond of me – now, wouldn't _that_ be scary?'

'Damon, stop avoiding the subject. Did something happen to Elena?' Bonnie's voice sounded worried.

'Kind of, she's fine now though – she's actually sound asleep. But… well, there's no point in postponing this any longer so I guess I should start from the beginning.'

So Damon told Bonnie every single detail that he could remember of, hearing Bonnie make small pauses during his story as if she couldn't believe her ears. When he came to the part where Katherine had come to the boarding house and told them about Stefan, Damon could clearly hear Bonnie catch her breath and then silence fell between them, as if there was nothing more to be said. Damon was the one who decided to say something optimistic so as to ease the tension, but his voice came out all wrong.

'I know it looks bad, Bonnie…'

'Bad? This is _Klaus_ we're talking about. Bad doesn't even begin to cover it, Damon. Why didn't you run after Katherine? Maybe she _was_ lying after all.' Bonnie's voice sounded hopeful.

'I tried to, but I was too weakened… And I hardly think that she was lying - she wouldn't lie about her precious Stefan. Anyway, I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you.'

'What about now? Couldn't you try to find her?'

'She's probably long gone by now.'

'God, Damon, we have to find Stefan.'

'I know, Bonnie - I know. Believe me, that's all I can think about.' Bonnie was impressed by Damon's sad voice - she would rarely hear him talk like this.

'You know, we could meet up right now at your place... I could call everybody else and we can start looking for Stefan if you want – the sooner the better.'

'Normally I would agree to that. But I think it's best that we all have a good night's sleep and think about it in the morning. They've most certainly already left town and I don't think there's anything we can do to stop them right now. '

'You're probably right…' Bonnie let out a heavy sigh and then her voice became reluctant. 'Ummm, Damon...'

'Yes, witch?'

'There's something more to the story than what Elena and you have been through tonight. And I think that she has the right to know as well.'

'Is this 'something' good news or bad news?' Damon reluctantly asked.

'Well, it's bad… but with a happy ending, sort of…' Bonnie's voice sounded distressed.

'Unless someone else is dead or about to die, can't it wait until morning? I honestly don't think that Elena can take this any longer.'

Bonnie thought about that for a second. 'Yeah, I guess it can wait until tomorrow…Damon, does Elena…'

Bonnie's voice fell to the background as Damon's sensitive ear picked up on a fragile voice coming from the bed. He turned to see Elena restlessly turning in her sleep. Although it was just a whisper, he could very well hear it since it was a single word that she repeated over and over again – _Damon_. He felt his heart grow bigger in an instant as he heard his name come from Elena's pretty little mouth. He had forgotten about Bonnie as well, so his name came as a surprise when she suddenly shouted it on the phone.

'…Damon!' She sounded irritated.

'Yeah… sorry, Bonnie, I didn't hear you – did you say something?'

'I asked you if Elena needs me to come over…'

'No, I think she'll do just fine.' Damon said while he continued gazing at Elena's lips as she called his name.

'But what if she needs our help?'

'It's ok, Bonnie, I got it all covered out. You get some rest, you had a long day. You'll need your strength in the morning.'

'Are you sure, Damon?' her voice hid both exhaustion and gratitude towards Damon's proposal.

'I'm positive. I'm _here_ for her. I won't leave her side.'

'Ok, Damon. Just please take care of her.'

'Always will…'

Water was still dripping from his hair as Damon switched the phone to 'Silence mode' and slowly went back to his king-size bed, never losing Elena from under his watch. This was the second time that night that Damon felt a sense of déjà-vu – as he was sitting on the other side of the bed, as far away as possible from Elena, he felt his hand reach out to gently caress her cheek. Damon knew that it wasn't fair to Elena to sleep in the same bed without her approval, so he had decided to spend the night on the couch. After all, she was his younger brother's girlfriend, although Stefan had run off under the influence of his favorite mistress – the blood. No, Damon would respect Elena no matter what.

Just as he was about to get out of bed, he heard Elena say his name again, as if she was calling him and asking him to stay with her. He saw her beautiful face frown and her lips form a tight line as if she was scared to be alone with her dreams – or probably her nightmares. Damon wouldn't normally abide from his rules, but the way that Elena had said his name melted his heart, making it simply impossible to leave her side. So he simply laid himself in a comfortable position with his body facing Elena, without worrying if he was too close to her or not. It didn't matter anymore, 'cause deep down in his heart he had made a vow - Damon would never let Elena face this cold world by herself again. It was as if she had heard him and a timid smile appeared on her face making all of his worries go away in an instant. As Damon sat there and watched Elena irregularly breath in and out, he hoped that she would be strong enough for everything that was still about to come. He knew for a fact that this was just the beginning...


	3. The dream within

**Author's note: To be honest, I'm happy with the result of my work in the last three days. The chapters are becoming longer and longer and that's what I wanted to achieve. I felt immensely grateful as I read all of your reviews - the fact that you're enjoying my story is the best part of the entire process. I'm having a little trouble when it comes to picking the title of a chapter, because the only thing that I can think about are song titles, given the fact that I adore music. I hope that's not a problem... Chapter 3's title is inspired from Lara Fabian's beautiful song 'The dream within'. I'll try to make each chapter unique, so the view on the characters and events will be somewhat different for every new chapter. Hope that'll work out fine. Until then, enjoy chapter 3!**

**Disclaimer: I unfortunately do not own the Vampire Diaries. My story centres around the characters of the TV show that belong to their rightful owners (TV script by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec) and of Vampire Diaries series written by L.J. Smith. Moreover, I do not intend any infringement upon any music that might inspire chapter titles or parts of my story.**

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><p>3. THE DREAM WITHIN<p>

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><p><em>Elena slowly drifted away into a more peaceful state of her dreams. By now, she had already realized that she was dreaming – she was experiencing that strange feeling of being awake in her own dream. Elena was now tense, for she had no idea what she would soon encounter – however, she could never really wake up and simply break out of the dream world. So she calmed herself down, waiting for the dream to slowly unfold. Elena soon found herself standing in the living-room of her house, on a sunny autumn day. The window curtains were completely open and the girl could see golden-colored leaves scattered all around their backyard. She was amazed at the beauty of this scene – it was as if it wasn't real. <em>

_Just then Elena realized that Jeremy was sitting on the floor in front of the TV playing one of his favorite video games – he seemed normal and happy. Elena didn't understand why something in this picture just didn't make sense, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Her brother lazily turned around and she saw Jeremy's face brighten at the sight of his big sister. _

'_Hey, Elena, how's it going?' Jeremy happily asked._

'_Fine, Jer'… what're you doing?'_

'_Playing some video games, I'm training so I won't get my ass kicked by Alaric.'_

'_Alaric?' Elena was now confused._

'_Yeah…' Jeremy said in an ironic tone '… you know **Alaric** – he's the tall guy who used to be our history teacher – well, still is. But now he's also our soon-to-be adoptive father…Well, you get the picture.'_

_Elena's face dropped after hearing Jeremy's words. She was amazingly happy to hear him say that; she was bewildered by the feeling that was growing inside of her, but she couldn't understand how this was possible. As she was reflecting on what her brother had said, she heard noisy footsteps coming from upstairs and then saw Alaric come down the stairs. _

'_Good afternoon, Elena!' Alaric said with a wide grin on his face and came to warmly hug her. _

'_Hey, Ric'…' Elena was in shock – and not because of the hug, but because of the words that she heard coming out of her mouth afterwards. 'Did you sleep well?' _

_Alaric let go of her and his smile became even wider. 'Best sleep in my life. I hope you don't mind that I'm taking Jeremy out this afternoon – promised him that we would be playing video games downtown. A competition is actually taking place today - we thought it would be a pity not to go. You're more than welcome to come, but I know that you're not a fan of these silly things. I'll make it up to you tonight, though - you have my word. But you're spending time with Jenna now, aren't you?'_

_Elena felt as if she had received a slap on the face. Je..nna? Spend time with **Jenna**? Was he serious? Just as she was reflecting upon the fact that Ric had lost it, she heard the warmest voice in her life shout from the kitchen – 'Oh, yes she is – definitely. I won't take no for an answer. Even if Stefan comes down here and breaks the door down.' Elena couldn't believe her ears – it really **was** Jenna! Instead of lingering on this fact she simply told Alaric 'Definitely going to stay home with Jenna. Have fun at the video centre!'. She then tried to pass her brother, who stopped Elena to give her a huge bear hug, and then slowly made her way to the kitchen, where the mixer was running. _

_Just as the annoying buzzing sound stopped, Elena heard the front door shut – that meant Alaric and Jeremy were already gone. Which left her all alone with her aunt… At first Elena thought that she had lost her mind, but then a strange sense of déjà-vu kicked in and she found herself standing in the kitchen, waiting for her aunt to turn around from the mixer. Elena felt her heart pop out of her chest as the woman revealed her face full of whip-cream – it really was Jenna! Surely enough, it was her one-of-a-kind, crazy, loving aunt. The next second Elena found herself hugging Jenna so tightly that the woman was finding it a bit difficult to breath. She had dropped the plastic bowl that she was holding in her hand, but she wasn't mad at her niece – however, she was extremely confused as she felt Elena cling to her body so desperately. Jenna started laughing – it was such a magical laugh to Elena's ears. _

'_Elena, honey, I'm right **here,** there's no need for you to squeeze me to death.'_

_Elena automatically let go of Jenna's body, but took her aunt's silky hands in hers. She felt guilty for reacting like this – it felt childish and stupid, but she simply couldn't help it. 'I'm sorry, Jenna, I just… I'm so happy to be here with you.' As Jenna saw tears coming down from Elena's eyes, her expression turned into a gentle one._

'_I'm happy to be with you as well, Elena. But…what's wrong, honey? Why the sad tears?'_

_Elena thought about telling her the truth – she really did – but, strangely enough, she didn't even remember why she had been crying in the first place. Everything felt normal now – it had never changed a bit. She had probably just had a nightmare all of this time – a long, awful nightmare. Instead of babbling, Elena decided for a small lie which wasn't entirely fake._

'_You simply reminded me of mom. She would always wear an apron just like yours and would bake our favorite apple pie in September.' She had no idea how she knew for a fact that it was September…_

'_Oh, baby…you miss them, it's normal. They would have been so proud to see you right now.' Jenna's eyes started filling with tears as well. ' It's been hard for all of us. But don't worry, Elena, I'm **here** for you! I'm not going anywhere...' _

_Those words sent a warm feeling in Elena's heart as she realized that what Jenna had said was true – why **would** she go away? She had nothing to worry about. 'Can I join you, Jenna?' Elena asked, wiping the tears from her eyes._

'_To make apple pie? Sure you can, Elena! That was the whole point of this operation – I **need** your help…' Jenna smiled at the last part._

'_Now don't be mean!' Elena said, laughing her heart out. 'I know I have no skills whatsoever when it comes to cooking.' _

'_It's ok, I'll show you. It's easy when you get the hang of it.'_

_Elena and Jenna spent the next hours making the family's secret recipe for apple pie. Elena couldn't say if it took them a few hours or days to finish, but she was happy. As she took a look around the kitchen and the living room, she realized that she felt so peaceful because this really was her true home. She never wanted this moment to end. That's when the doorbell rang, pulling Elena out of her reverie. _

'_Come in, Stefan!' Jenna shouted to the door. _

_As the door was opening, Elena couldn't help but ask Jenna how she had known it was Stefan. 'Are you joking? He comes here **every** day at the **same** hour to see you.'_

'_Good evening, Jenna!' Stefan politely announced himself, before entering the room. He was holding two large bouquets of flowers in his hand and had a huge smile on his face. 'And hello to **you**, birthday girl… Happy birthday, Elena!' As Stefan was saying that, he came to Elena and lightly kissed her on the lips, placing the red roses in her hands. Elena smiled at him, slightly embarrassed that Stefan had just kissed her in front of her aunt and shocked that she had forgotten about her own birthday. That's why Jenna wanted to make apple pie and Alaric kept telling her how sorry he was because he was spending time with Jeremy today – it all made sense now. Elena saw Jenna receive a kiss on the cheek from Stefan who handed her the other bouquet of white roses. _

'_I'll just take the flowers and put them in two vases in each of our rooms, ok, Elena?' Jenna asked her niece._

_Elena simply nodded, still entranced by Stefan standing just in front of her. Elena knew that she was rudely staring, but her eyes couldn't move from his perfect face – she was taking in every inch of skin, the beautiful color of his eyes and his thin lips. He caught her looking at him curiously and couldn't help but ask 'Is anything wrong, Elena? You're looking at me as if you've never seen me in your entire life…' his voice sounded a bit disappointed. Elena snapped out of it just in time to save the day. 'I'm simply contemplating the man I love…' Her sweet answer seemed to bring the smile back to Stefan's face and it was as if it had never left his lips. _

'_I'm so happy to see you smile, beautiful – but I'm **not** happy that you didn't let me bring you a proper gift.' _

'_You're the only gift I ever want…' With that, Elena brought Stefan closer to her face so as to lock his lips with hers. After a few sweet seconds, Stefan tried to pull away. It had become a custom for Stefan to break the kiss before it got too passionate - he didn't want to give in to the temptation of drinking her blood. Elena couldn't understand why he kept doing this, but instead of letting go, she grabbed Stefan's hair and forcefully brought his mouth back to hers. She could feel Stefan's surprised expression and the way he momentarily stiffened at her rapid action – she couldn't help but grin at his reaction. He finally gave in and fought back to win the supremacy of the kiss, drawing Elena closer and closer to him. Just as she was about to take the kiss to the next level, they both jumped when they heard Damon's inappropriate comment._

'_Oh, **come on**, Stefan – damn it! You ruined my surprise…' Seeing Elena and Stefan's confused looks, Damon continued with a smirk '**I **__wanted to be the one to kiss the birthday girl first…'_

_At Damon's words Elena felt her cheeks flush with warmth. 'Yeah, well, you obviously missed your chance now, Damon.' Stefan said with a big cocky grin on his face. Elena wondered if he was actually happy that Damon had seen them kissing like that. _

'_No worries, baby bro'… That doesn't mean that **my kiss** can't be better than yours… We'll just have to let Elena decide, won't we?' Damon cheerfully said and winked at Elena. The girl realized that Damon was just having his daily laugh, but she couldn't bring herself to grin, since Stefan clearly didn't find any of these comments hilarious. But sure enough, a smile escaped her lips, betraying her. _

'_Are you seriously doing this, Damon? **Today** of all days?' Stefan asked with an icy voice._

_Damon frowned at his brother's lack of humor. 'I was just joking, Stefan… Honestly, man, do you think that I would **actually** mean that and say it to your face **as well**?' Damon actually seemed hurt by his brother's distrust in him. That caught Stefan off guard. He clearly wanted to say something, but instead he shook his head, smiled and went to catch Damon in a friendly hug. They seemed happy and at peace. Elena wondered when she had last seen the both of them actually act like true brothers. She honestly couldn't remember. _

'_Now, can I **please** give the birthday girl my gift?' Damon asked with an innocent smile on his face. 'Oh, no… Damon, no! I asked you **both** not to bring me anything.'_

'_False, false and… false! You asked __**Stefan**__ not to bring you a gift – never said anything to me, missy.' Damon was actually enjoying this. He came close to Elena and that's when she realized that he had been hiding something behind his back this whole time. His gorgeous blue eyes were sparkling with – nervousness? - as he revealed a little fluffy white teddy-bear which sang Happy Birthday. Elena was touched – 'Damon, you shouldn't have… It's **really** beautiful – thank you!' Without thinking twice, Elena tightly hugged Damon and could have sworn that she heard him sigh. It felt nice being with him like this – she felt a comfort that she, strangely enough, never found in Stefan. _

_Elena realized that the teddy-bear she had been holding on to was all of a sudden wet. That was strange – how could it possibly be wet? Damon felt that something was wrong with Elena so he quickly released her from his embrace. He found a frozen-like Elena sitting in front of him with a shocked expression on her face. Before Damon could ask her what was wrong, Elena felt tears coming down her cheeks as she raised her hands holding a blood-filled teddy-bear, cut so badly that it was unrecognizable. _

'_Damon… Stefan's gone… What's happening?' Elena asked in a trembled tone. Before she could hear Damon's answer, they both froze as a terrible scream pierced the former silence, followed by a loud thud. Elena saw Damon disappear and just as she was about to enter the hallway herself, she was stopped in her steps by an alarmed Damon, who was tightly holding her arms, making it impossible for her to move. 'Don't, Elena…Don't go there, please…'. Elena was scared – what could have been so bad that Damon didn't want her anywhere near? _

_A shiver went down her spine as Elena saw Stefan enter the room and laughing his heart out. Elena had never seen him looking as atrocious as he did now – his face was twisted in a beastly way and the veins underneath his eyes were black and bulging, but the worse part was the fresh blood all around his mouth, dripping on his neck, shirt and on the floor. _

_Damon immediately switched his position and Elena found herself standing behind the older brother, who was all of a sudden in a defensive poise. She heard Damon fiercefully tell Stefan 'Don't you even **think** of getting anywhere near her…' _

_Stefan's answer came as a thunder of disdainful laughter. 'She's not my target – **yet**…' _

_Elena immediately felt repulsion and terror invade her as she realized what had happened to her boyfriend. 'Stefan, no… You didn't…' _

'_I did – and consider yourselves warned. If you try to stop me, I won't show any mercy.' It was an inhuman voice, foreign to Elena, who, for the first time in her life, actually feared Stefan. Before she could blink, Stefan disappeared through the open window, leaving both Damon and Elena in a shock-like state. The girl suddenly felt as she was choking as an idea started forming in her head. 'Damon, where's Jenna?' When the vampire didn't answer, Elena shouted 'Damon, what happened to JENNA?' She ignored Damon, who wanted to grab her again and fled to the hallway. The scene was more or less what she had feared – although it was impossible to witness. The entire staircase was filled with blood and at the end of the stairs laid Jenna, who had a huge open-cut on her neck. Her eyes were open and Elena could see the horror graved on her aunt's face as she had been thrown from upstairs by …Stefan. _

'_No…no... this can't be happening… Jenna, wake up! Jenna… please. Jenna. **Jenna**! No, Jenna, you can't leave me!' It was then that Elena felt Damon's arms around her, preventing her to drop to the ground next to Jenna in agony. As Elena felt Damon pick her up in his arms and take her away from Jenna's lifeless body, everything went blank. _

Elena woke up sobbing. She felt her eyes swollen from the tears that she had actually spilt during her never-ending dream. She had the feeling that she could sleep forever and never mind if she never woke up again. She didn't _want to_ anymore, because she felt exhausted and tired of everything that was going on in her life. Now it seemed that she couldn't even have a good night's sleep anymore – she was bound to start having the nightmares again. She internally cringed at the memory of last time.

Before her parents had passed away, Elena could have boasted about her long peaceful nights, in which she would rarely dream. After the car accident, Elena had experienced terrible nightmares each and every night for about four months – i.e. until she had met Stefan. The nightmares had all been alike – On May 23rd Elena and her parents were in their blue Volvo, sometime around sunset. Her father was driving and her mother was holding his right hand in a loving way. Elena, however, was a little mad at them 'cause they hadn't let her stay at the party longer – she was looking out the window at the beautiful scenery when she heard her dad forcefully hit the brakes. She couldn't see what had happened on the road – she could only remember the way they were flying off Wickery Bridge and the sound of the car when it hit the river. That was usually the point when she would wake up feeling sweaty and cold. She hadn't dreamed about her parents ever since last year, though.

Last night's dream, however, was much worse than the one with her parents – even more cruel, if _that_ was possible. The memory of last evening brought a sour taste to her mouth. Elena didn't want to think about it anymore, but she could clearly sense the pain wrapping her body again. She didn't feel like coming back to reality either, she didn't feel like doing anything actually – she was numb. After a few more minutes of staring at a fixed point on the carpet, she sensed that the pillow underneath her head was hurting her neck. The moment her hand found someone else's arm she realized what a fool she had been. She had been in _Damon's_ room all night long, of course. But she didn't remember how she had wound up here in the first place. There was a blank spot in her memory. And now Damon was holding her in his arms, but _why_? She reluctantly turned around and her eyes fell on Damon's sad smile. He looked worried and it was probably for her. He was silent for a few seconds as he took in her expression and still-swollen eyes.

'Morning, sunshine…' he gently said.

'What _happened_ to me last night, Damon?' Elena sadly asked him without replying to his 'Good morning'.

_'O..key_… so we'll skip the polite greeting… Well, I don't quite know how much of last evening you remember, but, after Katherine left, you kind of passed out.' Damon was hesitant with his words – he was clearly trying to test the waters, to see if Elena was about to have another nervous breakdown. Last evening's hysterics she _definitely_ couldn't forget.

'Just like that, huh?' Her voice sounded empty.

'You've been through a _lot_, Elena – it's normal. I was…' Damon's words got stuck in his throat as he changed his mind.

'You were what, Damon?' God, her voice sounded so feeble to his ears…

'I was _so worried_ about you – first last night and then the nightmare you had a few minutes ago… I didn't know what to do to help.' As Damon was saying these words, he was gently caressing the left side of Elena's silky face.

'You clearly did enough, Damon – I mean, look at me. I'm still in one piece,'- at this point Elena tried to crack a smile, but failed- 'so you handled me just fine.' Damon seriously doubted that – that had been her first lie. He was sure there would be more, but he didn't want to push her in telling him anything she didn't want to. _Not now_ – not when she was this vulnerable.

'Ok, I'm glad to hear that. Is there anything I can get you? A glass of water… breakfast in bed… or the guy on the poster hanging on the inside of your wardrobe?' Seeing Damon's eyebrows wiggle at his choice of words, she couldn't help but feel the corners of her mouth go an inch upwards. Elena knew that Damon could see her reaction and she was happy – he might as well think that she wasn't such a wreck. But Damon wasn't fooled at all by the tough game she was playing. Ok, so he would leave the jokes for later.

'I'm fine, Damon, really. But I guess that a shower would be more than welcome.'

'I think that's a _great_ idea – I'll bring you some clean towels right away.'

As Damon exited the room, Elena was left all alone with her crushing feelings. _No_! She wouldn't break down – not now or never, if that would be possible. She experienced a hardship while getting out of bed, for her entire body felt as if she had been run over by a train. After stretching her tense muscles, Elena pushed herself into first gear and started arranging the sheets and pillows of the king-size bed. By the time Damon came back with her towels, she had already finished. As the vampire entered the room, Elena had her fingers over the spot where Damon's fangs had inserted into her skin. Elena felt goose bumps as she remembered the strange sensation of having Damon drink her blood. Before she could analyze the feeling any longer, Damon made his presence known.

'Towels – check. I brought you a glass of water as well as a bagel, just in case you're hungry...' Damon froze as he saw what Elena was doing. The girl shuddered as she realized that he had seen her examine the wound. Damon put all of the items down and stayed put in his place. His mind was screaming at him not to do this, but he just had to ask her right now.

'_Elena..._ what happened to your neck?' the tension in his voice was definitely there.

Elena froze as well. She couldn't tell him the truth, for it would only make him torment himself more than necessary. But she hesitated and knew for a fact that Damon already saw through her lie.

'It's nothing – it's already heeling.' She could at least try to make him drop it.

'You're_ lying_.' Or she couldn't make him drop it. It figures.

'Now why would I _lie_, Damon?' she felt her characteristic stubbornness kick in as she crossed her arms**.**

'I don't know, Elena…that's _precisely_ why I'm trying to figure this out. It doesn't make any sense if you ask _me_.' Damon insisted. Seeing as she wouldn't bulge, he made his way all across the room to where Elena was standing and grabbed her arms, forcing her to look him in the eye. She couldn't lie to him – not while she was in this position.

'I don't want to talk about it, Damon.' Elena finally said.

'Is that because you don't want to remember or is it for someone else's sake?' Elena's eyes went wide in shock at how well Damon had gotten to know her. She lingered upon the fact a bit longer, until she decided that she didn't want to lie to him.

'It's because I don't want to _hurt_ you, Damon…' Elena said in a pleading voice.

'Nonsense, how could you _possibly_ hurt me?' Damon's confused blue eyes made Elena blurt the truth out, without even thinking.

'Last night, you escaped from your cell and we were looking for you all over town, 'cause you were clearly not feeling well. After I escaped from the sheriff's office' Damon's eyes became wide with shock '– long story – I was searching for you all by myself. When I found you in the city square, you were upset about Katherine – I think that you were having a hallucination and thought that I was her. You pinned me to a tree or fence, I don't recall exactly, and you…' Elena swallowed hard before she said the words '..you bit me.' Elena had been staring at the floor as she spoke – she was afraid to look at Damon. When she finally looked up at him, Elena's heart winced as she saw the pained expression forming on Damon's face. He slowly let go of her arms and started shaking his head in disbelief. He then looked so furious that Elena thought he was going to break something.

She quickly tried to explain – 'You didn't hurt me, Damon – you only took a bit of my blood and you _stopped_. Nothing more happened, I'm _fine_ now…'

Damon suddenly exploded – 'I didn't _hurt _you? I could have _killed_ you, Elena…' He now had his hands clenched into fists.

'But you didn't – it didn't even hurt' Damon shot her a distrusting look. 'I am _not_ lying! Please believe me, Damon...'

'Imagine this – you come looking after me so as to help me come back home and I_ attack_ you instead– how gentleman-like of me, huh?' he said, having a hands on his head, while he was shaking with fury.

'I could never blame you for it – you were so sick that you couldn't even stand straight, let alone be capable of making the difference between me and Katherine.'

'That's still not an excuse for my actions. I'm so sorry, Elena…'

Elena didn't know what else to say so as to convince Damon that she was fine and that she wasn't upset at him. God, she couldn't believe that he was overreacting like this – Damon might not have liked it, but he resembled his brother more than he let on. In fact, he had probably beaten his brother this time at feeling guilty about his actions– Elena had never seen him regret something more than this. He was certainly hurting a lot and she couldn't stand it anymore. So she carefully approached him, took his face in her hands and waited until he watched her in the eye.

'I forgive you…' Elena gently said and rushed to put her index finger on his mouth so as to silence him. 'And you _do_ deserve my forgiveness. You've changed, Damon…' The vampire felt as if he had died and arrived in heaven with a first-class ticket. Elena didn't hate him - she had actually forgiven him and now she was standing so close to him that he could gaze into her gorgeous chocolate eyes as much as he pleased. He could feel the connection that was always present between the two of them forming and wondered if Elena felt the same. He quickly tried to get that out of his head, but her warm finger on his lips didn't help the situation at all. As if sensing his discomfort, Elena slowly pulled her hand back, feeling a warm tingle go through her finger.

She was so happy the moment she saw Damon smile and heard him say 'Thank you, Elena.'

'You're welcome.' She timidly smiled back.

They both experienced a small moment of surprise and hesitation as they realized that the last two lines had been uttered last evening, after they had shared a kiss. They stared into each others eyes for a few seconds, entranced by one another's lingering expressions. As Damon's eyes fell on Elena's cherry-red mouth, the girl felt her lips slightly part and her heartbeat accelerate. After a few more seconds, they looked away at the same time with shame and guilt written on their faces as they were both thinking of one single word – _Stefan_.


	4. How do I live

**Author's note: I honestly couldn't wait to post this chapter! I personally enjoyed working at it more than the last ones and I can't wait to see what you guys think about my work. I have to say that I'm sorry about posting the last chapter and then temporarily deleting it. I was in a hurry to post it and I didn't see a few spelling mistakes until after I updated the story. Hope that it didn't inconvenience any of the readers. I would also like to say how stunned I was to see my inbox full of notifications concerning my story - I'm very thankful to all of you who added my story to their favorites list and I'm truly happy that you are enjoying my story. I'm also a bit nervous since all of you guys are reading my work... If things work out well, I'll be posting another three chapters before Season 3 actually starts. If not, I hope I'll be able to post at least once a week. Anyway, I'll keep you updated. I almost forgot - this chapter's title is inspired from Lee Ann Rimes' beautiful song - "How do I live". Enjoy chapter 4!**

**Disclaimer: As much as I would like to, I do not own the Vampire Diaries. My story centres around the characters of the TV show that belong to their rightful owners (TV script by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec) and of Vampire Diaries series written by L.J. Smith. I also do not intend any infringement upon any music that might inspire chapter titles or parts of my story.**

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><p><strong> 4. HOW DO I LIVE<strong>

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><p>As Damon closed his bedroom's door, leaving Elena alone to take a shower, he felt incredibly furious and ashamed at himself. The fact that he had bitten Elena the day before he would eventually learn to accept – it had been an honest mistake from his part; he realized that Elena's words had been true – he couldn't have made the difference between the girl and her evil doppelganger in the state that he had been. And she had already forgiven him, which made him extremely relieved. But feeling the need to reach out and kiss Elena every five minutes while he was near her – well, Damon simply couldn't accept that, let alone get used to it. Last year he would have felt that having such feelings towards a girl would make him weak and a complete disgrace to the vampire race – that pretty much covered the way Damon had felt about Stefan when he found out about his brother's feelings for Elena. But now, no matter how much Damon tried to find an excuse to make him love Elena less, he simply couldn't find one – well, except for the fact that he was betraying his brother.<p>

Damon was suddenly pulled out of his reverie as he heard someone knock at the front door. That was strange – none of the people he knew would _knock_ – they would just barge in uninvited. He was at the door in less than a second, but surely enough, he wasn't simply imagining it. Alaric, Vampire Barbie and – Tyler? – were standing on the porch, waiting for Damon to invite them in. They all looked a tad embarrassed to be at the Boarding House at 9 o'clock in the morning. The vampire was surprised, to say the least.

'I can't say I haven't been expecting you guys, but what happened to the string quartet?' At Damon's words, Alaric suddenly burst into laughter. Damon was referring to Bonnie, Jeremy, Caroline and Alaric as being 'the string quartet'.

'Well, it's a long story…' Alaric said between giggles before he was abruptly interrupted by a weeping Caroline. 'Oh my God, Damon… I'm so happy that you're fine!' the girl jumped and frantically wrapped her arms around Damon's neck, sobbing in his chest. That took Damon completely off guard – he honestly looked as if he were in shock. Tyler couldn't help but grin at his reaction.

It took Damon a minute before he could compose himself and he hesitated before he patted Caroline on the back. 'Yeah, I'm happy too, Caroline… I just hope you're not planning to choke me to death any time soon.' Damon's comment sent Caroline sobbing even more, which in turn only intensified the terrorized look on Damon's face. 'Only you could be cracking jokes after you've almost died.' the girl cried.

'Yeah, well, I hope you didn't come for round two, 'cause I don't think _I'll _be the one who's put down this time.' Damon told Tyler with an edge of resentment in his voice. It seemed that Tyler had caught that, 'cause his face turned slightly red at Damon's words.

'He won't _do_ anything, Damon, you know that… And please don't be mean!' With that, Caroline released Damon from her iron-like embrace and wiped the tears from her eyes. 'Now, where can I find Elena?'

'She's upstairs taking a shower. Did you –'

'Already taken care of… Now, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I'm going to see my best-friend.'

'Caroline!' Damon shouted after the vampire. She was standing in the middle of the hallway waiting for his response, clearly pissed by the interruption.

'Just... be gentle with her – she's pretty messed up right now…' Caroline's features visibly mellowed as she took in Damon's words.

'Don't worry, I will. I know what I'm doing.' With that, Caroline was already gone - which left Damon with a human school teacher who happened to be his friend and with a seemingly pained werewolf who had almost killed him. Well, he was in for a ball today.

They made their way to the living-room where Alaric suddenly stopped and turned towards Damon, looking somewhat uncomfortable. 'I'm really happy that you're ok, Damon…' Unlike Damon's earlier reaction to Caroline's feverish hug, the vampire felt truly touched as Alaric friendly patted him on the back. He couldn't find the words to say something more than 'Thanks a lot, Ric…'.

As Alaric took a seat on the couch, Damon was left standing next to a distressed Tyler. He seemed to be internally fighting, nervously fidgeting with his hands, before he turned to face Damon.

'Hey, man… I wanted to apologize.' It took a few seconds before the vampire answered in a sincere voice.

'What for? I'm fine now – I survived, that's the most important part.' Damon was now pouring some scotch in three glasses.

'Yeah, I can see that – I can't say how relieved I am that I didn't kill you. And I regret what I've done – I'm really sorry, it's still hard for me to control the transformation. I honestly didn't want you to get hurt.'

As Damon lingered upon Tyler's words he turned around holding a glass of scotch in his palm and handed it to Tyler. 'I believe you, wolf. I get it – I've been there, done that. I know how hard it is to keep control.' These words made Tyler look dumbstruck. He had been expecting to hear much worse than that from Damon – he had probably been wrong about him the whole time. Strangely enough, he couldn't hold any grudge against him, although he _had_ killed his uncle Mason.

'Thanks, man… I appreciate it.'

'No hard feelings…' Damon sincerely said. Once they were all seated, it suddenly dawned on him that he hadn't asked them something really important.

'So, tell me… where's the little witch and the Lord of the rings?' Tyler kept his eyes to the floor as he heard Damon's question. Alaric smiled at Damon's choice of words, but his smile didn't reach his eyes.

'What's going on?' the vampire asked with a puzzled look on his face.

'Well… How bad do you want to hear the story?' Alaric reluctantly asked.

'Why are you asking me _that_?' Damon asked with one eyebrow going up in confusion.

''Cause you're not going to like it at all…' At that same second Damon heard the shower upstairs go off and Elena walk into his room to a weeping Caroline.

It took Elena ten whole minutes to make Caroline stop crying. It seemed somewhat unfair, for she should've been the one crying, but, strangely enough, Elena was glad that she hadn't broken down at the sight of her best-friend. She wouldn't have thought that Caroline could cry as much as she had just done – it seemed that since she had become a vampire, Caroline had gone over the edge in that department. However, Elena was immensely happy to see her friend – they hadn't spoken like this since before Caroline and Tyler had been kidnapped for the sacrifice and Elena was more than grateful that Damon had saved the two of them just in time.

'So what happened with Tyler and you after Damon saved you guys?' Elena was sincerely curious to find out how things had developed. She was in for another ten minute story of how Matt and her ran through the woods and wounded up alone at the Lockwood mansion. And at the peak of the story i.e. when Tyler tried to attack them, but failed to get in the house, Elena couldn't help but catch her breath. She couldn't understand why she still had these reactions – by now she should have grown immune to such things. As Caroline told her of the kiss that she and Tyler had shared the day before, Elena actually had a happy smile on her face.

'God, Caroline… I'm so happy for you – I really am. You two deserve it.' Elena said as she held Caroline's hand.

'I'm so happy as well, Elena. I mean, I still feel guilty about Matt and everything that happened with us, but I really like Tyler. Still, I'll have to deal with Matt eventually, 'cause he knows about all of us and I don't think he's handling it too good. But I'll take things slow. Slow is the right thing to do in this case, right?'

'Definitely…' Elena said in a flat tone. Something in Caroline's story was starting to bring her thoughts back to Stefan and it hurt like hell. So she quickly pushed his image out of her head and instead told her friend 'Thanks a lot for the clothes and toiletries you brought, Car'. You're a lifesaver.'

Caroline's cheeks suddenly got flushed at Elena's words. Seeing her friend's confused expression, she hasted to clarify everything.

'Well, I just brought them here. _Damon_ was the one who called me to say that you would be needing these eventually. Well, he called Bonnie at first, but then she asked me to stop by your house and pick these up.' Elena suddenly felt a warm tingle under her skin as Caroline's words sank in. _Damon_ had done this? She just couldn't picture him calling Bonnie and asking for toiletries and clothes for a girl. Also, Elena wondered how Damon could still think of something so insignificant while he was dealing with all the drama in their lives. Elena would later thank him for taking care of her like this.

'Well, he's very…attentive.' Elena finally said.

'Yeah…he's a _very _good friend to you, isn't he?' Although Caroline didn't intend it, Elena could feel the hidden sense behind her words – she simply thought it better to ignore it.

'Yes, he is… Umm, Caroline?'

'Yes, Elena?'

'Did you say that Damon called Bonnie first?'

'Yeah, he actually did.' The vampire said in a very natural tone.

'So why isn't she here with us? You said that Alaric and Tyler are with Damon downstairs, but… I don't get it – why didn't _Bonnie_ come?' Elena asked, carrying a puzzled expression on her face.

Caroline seemed as if she was completely taken aback by her friend's question, which made Elena realize that something wasn't right. The vampire's reaction only lasted a fraction of a second and then Caroline composed her face very well, but Elena hadn't missed her hesitation. 'She's with Jeremy.' Caroline simply stated.

Elena was now the one to be taken by surprise 'Oh, ok – that makes sense…but what is she doing with Jeremy at ten o'clock in the morning?'

This time Caroline didn't hesitate. 'He wasn't feeling very well and Bonnie went over to see how he was doing.'

'I don't understand… what's wrong with him? Is he sick?' Elena's voice now seemed a bit alarmed.

'Yeah, he woke up feeling bad. After Bonnie went over to see him, she called me and said that he had the measles.' Caroline's face was sad as she said the last words.

'Hmmm, measles… _Measles?_ Are you sure?'

'Yeah… I mean, Bonnie was _positive_ – her father recently had the disease and she said that Jeremy had the exact same symptoms.' As Caroline took in Elena's distressed face, she continued.

'He'll have to stay at home for about ten days, I think. And, from what I remember, you're not allowed to see him during this period, 'cause you never had the measles, right? But don't worry, Elena, ten days are going to pass in a blur, you won't even notice. And with everything that's happened, you'll most certainly enjoy this time to rest.'

Elena breathed in and out trying to compose herself before looking her friend straight in the eye -'Why are you _lying_ to me, Caroline?' The vampire's expression suddenly changed from confidence to distrust, but then went back to its former rigidness. Her voice came out a bit offended. 'Elena… I'm not lying! I'm telling you the truth…'

'Really?' Elena seemed furious. ''Cause, from what I recollect, and I _do_ remember correctly, Jeremy had _measles_ when he was eight years old.' Caroline now seemed caught completely off-guard.

'So you'd better start telling me what's going on, because I don't believe a single word you've said.' Elena was now standing in the middle of Damon's bedroom and she was truly enraged.

Damon was still downstairs with Alaric and Tyler, discussing about the possibilities of bringing Stefan back. They had already covered the topics of Jeremy's outnumbered death experience and then the strange things that he had started seeing i.e. the dead vampires, leaving Damon with another big hole in his chest, as he realized that Elena wouldn't forgive him this time. He had been lucky the first time, when she had understood the episode with him biting her, but they were now talking about Jeremy – her brother, her only living family. Damon had thought about keeping this episode from Elena for now – she was already such a wreck that he didn't know how she would react concerning the present situation. He wasn't too hopeful though – it didn't look good, no matter how he analyzed the situation. But he knew that Elena treasured the truth more than anything in the world, so he couldn't even comprehend the idea of hiding such a fact from her.

Damon had been closely eavesdropping on Elena and Caroline's conversation this whole time. He had a momentary desire to rip Caroline limb by limb given the fact that she had been stupid enough to open her mouth about Bonnie at the wrong moment. He was sure that Elena would most certainly figure the lie out. Although he had foreseen it, Damon was still taken aback from the intensity with which Elena screamed at Caroline.

'He's my _brother_, Caroline! Didn't any of you think that I had a right to know?' Damon then heard vampire Barbie mumble something incomprehensible, before Elena burst into flames again.

'I don't _care_ that you thought that I couldn't take it. This has _nothing_ to do with Stefan being gone! Yes, he left – but that doesn't mean that the world revolves around this single event.' At these words Damon felt a bit more light-hearted, although he couldn't quite understand why. 'This is _Jeremy_ we're talking about… Where is he, Caroline?'

'Excuse me?' the vampire seemed to be getting smaller by the second as Elena's fury grew stronger.

'Where is my brother, Car'?' Elena tightly said as she was shaking her head, feeling her eyes fill with tears. 'I want to see him… Tell me where he is.' As she received no answer from her friend, Elena shot to the door, decided to go look for Jeremy. Caroline, however, stopped Elena in her tracks by blocking her way.

'I can't let you go looking for him, Elena… You're still too weakened – you need some rest.' Although Caroline's voice hid shame and worry towards her, Elena wasn't impressed at all. Instead, she simply exploded once again.

'Caroline Forbes, you get out of my way or I swear to God that I will jump out the window just to get out of this house!'

That had apparently done the job. At first, Elena thought that she was imagining the scene, but it was for real – Caroline, reduced to silence, retreated out of Elena's way, looking hurt and angry at herself. Elena wouldn't miss this chance – it was now or never. So she fled to the door, opened it and was relieved to see herself in the middle of the hallway with no Caroline on her back. But Elena's happiness was short-lived. Before she could reach the stairs, a figure appeared in front of her face with the speed of light, almost causing Elena's heart to enter a tahycardic state.

A taller and fiercer-looking Damon was standing right in front of her, inches away from her frozen body. He seemed to be trying to compose his voice as he pierced Elena's eyes, making her completely forget why she had been running in the first place. He was standing so close to her that Elena felt his breath on her face and shuddered from the feeling. His voice came out all shaky, as he was clearly trying not to lose control while standing next to Elena.

'Where do you think _you're going_?'

Elena suddenly jumped out of her reverie and her previous fury kicked in. 'I'm going _home_.' she tightly said. Damon stared at her for a second frowning before he started in a demanding tone.

'No, you're not. Now turn around and _go_ _right back where you came from_.'

Elena couldn't believe her ears – Damon was now _telling _her what to do? She knew that she would regret the words, but she felt them leave her mouth before she could do anything to stop them.

'NO! I said I was going to see my brother. You know Jeremy, don't you, Damon? Of course you do – he's the person who died twice because of _you_… And given the fact that you his this from me hardly puts you in the position of giving orders.'

Damon's eyes looked as if they had been cracked. Elena couldn't believe that she had actually said those words. She didn't mean them, she would have never meant them – 'cause they were simply a profanity. She understood what had happened, she knew Damon wasn't the one to blame, he was sick when those things had happened. It hadn't been his fault – he was innocent, he was a good man. But all of the hatred, sadness and despise that she'd been gathering up inside of her had simply exploded like a nuclear bomb. She had said those words for she knew that they would hurt him – that was what had happened. She had wanted to hurt somebody as bad as she had been wounded. And Damon was unlucky enough to be there when she couldn't keep all of those feelings inside anymore.

Elena couldn't look at him – the moment she had the courage to look him in the eye, she was unpleasantly surprised to find a look of resentment and fury plastered on Damon's face. He looked as if he would never talk to her again – the realization made Elena wince, a fact which didn't pass unnoticed by Damon. She was astonished to feel herself hastily picked up by the vampire and the next second she found herself once again in Damon's bedroom. Caroline was watching the two of them as if she was afraid even to say something. Feeling that she was unwanted, she silently left the room in high-speed – which left Elena alone with an angry Damon.

The vampire was shaking with rage – he couldn't believe what had just happened. He thought that Elena and him were on way better grounds than _this_. '_But hey, that's what happens when you're responsible for actually killing the girl's brother – twice. Get over it_.' But he simply couldn't – he felt more than hurt. If it had come from anyone else, he could have easily gotten over it, but this was Elena who had pinned him to the ground like that. Strangely enough, he couldn't help but feel more love-struck than he had ever been. '_God, I must be losing my mind…_'

Elena could see that Damon was trembling with fury. But she was too afraid to even say something, let alone approach him. She had never felt so guilty in her entire life – not even when she found out that Stefan had run away with Klaus. That episode seemed meaningless compared to the damage that she had now done to Damon. He was never going to forgive her – she could feel it. The memory of his hurt face was the only thing that she could see, whether she kept her eyes closed or open. God, why did it have to be like this with the two of them? They were the best of friends, they enjoyed each other's company, but a stupid episode like this would always come between them and Elena couldn't stand it anymore. It was like a freakin' rollercoaster – up and down, 24/7. She remembered the other times when she had hurt Damon – when she and Stefan had betrayed him because they didn't want to open the tomb; and there was always the time when she had lied to him in order to get her hands on the book on Katherine's history from the University of Duke. Elena caught her breath, remembering what Damon had told her then on the porch of her house:

'_You used me today.'_

'_You had information about Katherine that I needed.'_

'_I thought friends don't manipulate friends… You and Katherine have got a lot more in common than just your looks.' _

Elena couldn't feel her legs anymore – Damon had been right. The realization made her feel weak and like a traitor. She said in a feeble voice 'Damon…', but was shocked to feel the air around her literally move and in less than a second Damon was standing right in front of her, wearing a mask on his former enraged face. He was holding Elena's arms in an iron-steel grip and his voice came out tight and firm, as if he were talking to a naughty child.

'Now you listen to me, Elena, and you listen good. I don't _care _how much you want to see Jeremy! You are not going to leave this house – not today and _definitely_ not without me. Given the fact that Stefan is gone God-knows-where and that sheriff Forbes now knows that you're friends with a bunch of vampires, you are not going to take one foot out of this house alone. I wouldn't normally act like this, but you're clearly not thinking straight at the moment. And plus, apart from vampire Barbie, who, by the way, clearly has a weakness for you, I am the only one who can take care of you. And I'll be damned if I let you go wandering by yourself in town after all the effort that both my brother and I have put up so as to keep you safe. You're probably not going to like it, but, from now on, I'll be staying with you day and night, just to make sure that you keep away from any trouble. I almost lost you and I am _not_ going to let that happen again. Did I make myself _clear_?'

Elena felt the tears start rolling down her cheeks. She tried to speak, but couldn't, so she simply nodded while staring into Damon's eyes, feeling mesmerized by their light blue color. His words were reverberating in her head, making it hard to think straight. Until this very moment, she had never actually realized how much Damon really cared about her. He had jumped in front of her to take an arrow in the back and he had stood up to Elijah a number of times, and these actions should have been the best proof of his feelings for her. But she had never heard him say the words - not with such intensity. Elena sensed that all of the feelings regarding Damon that she had kept inside were now bursting out of her chest, making it impossible to breath.

Damon thought that Elena was going to faint – her face had become a light shade of blue and he could hear her breathing dangerously slowing down by the second. He realized that he had probably scared her, so he quickly let go of her arms, taking a few steps back so that she could see that he wasn't going to hurt her. His head was swirling and the scene was too much for him; he turned around to face his bedroom door so as to let Elena calm down. How could he be so insensitive? This girl had suffered so many losses in the last days and the realization that her brother could have died as well had probably taken her over the edge. He still felt hurt because she had yelled those accusations at him, but Damon couldn't say that he didn't understand her. He wanted to hold her tight, make her look him in the eye and tell him right there and right in that moment how she really felt about him. But the love he felt for her stopped him from bringing that scene to life. If only Elena would let him help her and be there for her without pushing him away…

Damon flinched as he felt Elena's body clinging to his back and her hands going round his waist, gently embracing him. He hadn't heard her move an inch and he was completely shocked to be taken by surprise like that. It took him a few seconds to readjust to the position that he was now in. The moment he sensed his favorite strawberry flavor emanating from Elena's skin, all hell broke loose inside of him. It took every drop of his power not to turn around, pin Elena to the ground and kiss her.

Elena was trembling with fear as she desperately hung to Damon's back. But, strangely enough, it wasn't the normal kind of fear that she should've felt as she was trying to apologize to an angry vampire. No, that wasn't the case at all – the reason she was so anxious was because she feared that Damon wouldn't even want to listen to her, let alone forgive her. Elena realized that their relationship had always been based on words and never enough on true, palpable proof of their feelings. So, in a desperate moment, she had decided that she was going to try this in a different way – she was going to show him how much she needed his forgiveness through _gestures_ and not through words. Instead of listening to her inner voice who was telling her to back off, she continued to stay clinged to Damon's now frozen body. Elena could sense that the vampire was extremely tense, but after a few seconds of hard and loud breathing, she could feel Damon's muscles release the former tension. Elena suddenly felt Damon's fingers grab her arms in such a gentle way as if they were only feathers, and then he lightly broke her tight embrace.

'Damon…' Elena knew that she sounded needy, but somehow she didn't care anymore – she needed to tell him everything she felt.

'Damon, don't push me away… Not now – after everything that we've been through!' Elena felt disappointment overflow her as she saw that Damon hadn't moved an inch; he looked as if he would forever remain in that position – with his back facing her and his palms clenched into tight fists.

'Damon, please look at me!' Elena was now begging – she knew that she should've felt embarrassed for the way she was acting, but she simply couldn't stop. The fact that Damon wasn't even willing to look her in the eye was driving her crazy. She wiped the tears from her face as she tried again.

'I'm sorry, Damon… I'm so sorry for what I said – I didn't mean it, I was so mad about everything that has happened lately.' The vampire still remained in his position.

'I know I told you that I was fine this morning, but I lied – I'm a complete and utter mess… But I guess that you already knew that, didn't you?' Still no answer from him…

'Because you know me so well, Damon… Sometimes I feel that you know me better than I know myself.' Silence...

'That's why I need you to understand why I was so unfair with you. I never meant to – I promise you that I'll never act like this again. You don't deserve to be treated the way I do – you deserve better than someone like me.'

Elena felt her head swirling as she hadn't received any sign whatsoever from Damon. Her voice came out so soft-spoken that she could barely hear it herself.

'I'm sorry that I'm such a disappointment – I'm even worse than Katherine…' Just as she was about to turn around and give up, she saw from the corner of her eye that Damon was moving.

Elena took courage in both hands and lifted her eyes to where Damon was standing. She felt her heart skip a beat as she saw the vampire slowly turning towards her. Elena was now completely shocked as she took in Damon's face – she had never seen his eyes so pained as they now were. He looked at her as if he was seriously questioning her mental health. Elena felt the air change and Damon was in front of her in less than a millisecond. He was piercing her chocolate-eyes, making it impossible for her to look away. His voice was the same as a few minutes before – demanding – but, unlike earlier, he gently took Elena's face in his palms, waiting for her to calm her breathing.

'Don't you _ever_ say that again!' Elena felt her head swirl as she felt Damon's breath on her face.

'You are _nothing_ like Katherine – not even a bit.' He shook his head as he started caressing Elena's face.

'You're always so selfless and kind and you feel the constant need to protect every living thing except yourself.' Damon took a deep breath before he continued.

'If you were worse than Katherine, I wouldn't be here standing in front of you like this – I would've been long gone by now.' Elena had completely calmed down and was now carefully listening to Damon's words, savoring each and every syllable that was coming out of his mouth.

'There's nothing that I have to forgive – I understand, Elena. I know it might seem like I don't get _a lot_ of things, but I know what you are feeling right now. And you can say it out loud if you want to; that's the _beauty_ of it - you don't have to hide or pretend that you're ok. Not when you're with _me_…'

Elena felt as if she was standing completely naked in front of Damon – she couldn't comprehend how he could read her so well, but instead of being ashamed and reserved, she felt safe and understood. A shiver went down her spine as she felt Damon's eyes piercing hers – God, how_ could_ he make her want to tell him everything just by looking in her eyes? She didn't feel obliged though – no, it was her desire _only_ to tell him these intimate things. She felt her bottom lip tremble…

'I miss him, Damon…' There, she had said it – it was out of her system. Elena had never been the kind of girl who opened up to somebody that easily – she was lucky enough to have been able to talk to Bonnie and sometimes to Stefan. But Damon… the way he made her blurt out the truth was beginning to make her feel weak and fragile. She couldn't stop though – she had to spill it all out.

'And…every time I remember Katherine's words, I can't help but think that he left me.' Elena saw Damon try to react to her words, but she didn't let him.

'He left me here all alone. And I know that he did it to save you – I would _never_ want it any other way, because I care about you so much… But Stefan left me here without looking back.' By now, Elena's eyes were filled with fresh new tears. She wondered if she would ever stop crying.

'He _abandoned_ me, Damon…' Elena said between sobs.

The moment Damon saw the girl's pink cheeks filled with tears, he gently picked her up and seated himself on the bed whilst holding Elena like a small child in his lap. Her head was buried in his chest and her arms were clinging to his body as if she never wanted him to let go of her. Damon could feel her body tremble with every new sob, her heartbeat accelerate and he could even sense the salty taste of her tears. He wished that he could kiss away every shred of pain and every tear that would eventually be shed by Elena. He wanted to tell her that she was wrong about Stefan, that he would be coming back because he loved her so much, but something inside of Damon couldn't let him lie to her. It was his brother's fault that Elena was in this state and Damon was now also fighting with the growing feeling of resentment towards Stefan and his impulsive humanitarian actions.

'He didn't have a choice – he wouldn't have left you if there had been another way.' Damon felt Elena shudder so he simply tightened his embrace.

'Don't hate him for what he did – it was what anyone would have done for their brother or sister.' Damon realized that he hadn't specifically included himself in the sentence. But how could he? He knew for a fact that he would always choose Elena in favor of his brother, no matter what. He gently grabbed the girl's chin and slowly directed it to his face.

'But don't worry – we _will _bring him back, Elena. I promise you that I will do _everything_ in my power to bring him back…'

Seeing Elena's empty eyes made it even harder for Damon to stay away from her. He gave her an assuring look and then bent down so as his lips to gently kiss her forehead. When he drew back from her face, he saw Elena's eyes open and felt her shaking worse than before. Again, he felt so helpless that he couldn't help Elena with more than just his words, but this time he simply held her tight in his arms, letting her cry her heart out. Damon didn't care that he wasn't the brother she was crying about. He didn't care that he had just promised her to bring back Stefan – the only man that had taken away two of the women that he loved. He didn't care that Elena would never have the same intense feelings for him as she nurtured for his brother.

The only thing that mattered was that he could once again hold the love of his life tight in his arms just like this…

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><p><strong><em>I haven't done this until now, but I would really appreciate it if you could review this chapter. It would help me understand what your feelings towards my work are and if the style of writing is good enough. Thanks in advance. :) Until next time!<em>**


	5. Guardian angel

**Author's note: I'm so glad that I managed to update in just a few days... To be honest, although I said that I was going to write only about Elena and Damon moments, I realized that the story would be somehow incomplete... Especially in this chapter, in which I couldn't fast forward certain events. You'll see that most of this chapter consists of dialogue. I hope I managed to offer you a decent perspective on what the action might be like. Again, I would like to thank everyone that has reviewed my work - I found all of your comments helpful and I hope that I'll continue to write the story so that each and every one of you can enjoy it! The title of this chapter is inspired from the lovely song 'Your Guardian Angel ', by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. **

**Diclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own the Vampire Diaries. My story centres around the characters of the TV show that belong to their rightful owners (TV script by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec) and of Vampire Diaries series written by L.J. Smith. Furthermore, I do not intend any infringement upon any music that might inspire chapter titles or parts of my story.**

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><p><strong>5. GUARDIAN ANGEL<strong>

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><p>'Damon, will you <em>please<em> leave me alone? I know what I'm doing.' Caroline could see that Damon strongly disagreed with her idea, but he couldn't actually do anything to stop her, could he?

'Yeah, that's exactly what you said an hour ago, but it seems that I still had to clean up _your_ mess.' He was referring to Caroline's indiscretion concerning Jeremy. Damon could see vampire Barbie's face turn to a light shade of red as fury and shame were taking over her.

'That's not fair and you know it – I didn't do it _on purpose_. Plus, Elena was eventually going to find out. What could you have done – lock her up in a cage?' That was _exactly_ what Damon would have done. But he wouldn't have used a cage – he would have locked her up in the basement. That way maybe she would be safe. Knowing Elena, Damon highly doubted that.

'Well, that _is_ an idea to think about…' Damon said while smirking.

Caroline simply rolled her eyes in exasperation and turned around to find help in Tyler. The werewolf shook his head as if saying _'Oh, no… I'm not getting involved in this.'_ As a response, Caroline gave him an angry punch in his left arm. That gave Tyler an impulse to take the word.

'Damon, why don't you think about it? It might do her some good.'

'And who asked _you_, wolf?' '_Great, so Damon is back to his old grumpy self'_ Tyler grimly noted. As he was preparing to back away, he received another punch from Caroline, but this time in the leg. That made Damon feverishly giggle, but seeing the look on Caroline's face, he suddenly stopped, before he would actually make her angry. _'We all know what women are like when they get **really** angry...'_

'Ok, I'm listening…' Damon said, having his hand underneath his chin. Tyler tried again.

'Well, I just think that seeing Jeremy might calm her down. I mean, she already knows – what more harm can come out of this?' Tyler asked in an innocent voice.

'I can see where you're coming from, Lockwood. But, you see, I just spent _a whole hour_ calming her down. I believe that you can all see why I don't think this is such a good idea.' Damon stated as he heard Elena's slowed breathing from upstairs. It was a miracle that she had managed to fall asleep and he wasn't going to wake her up anytime soon.

'God, how can you be so _pig-headed_? We're just trying to help her!' Caroline finally exploded.

'Wait in line, Barbie… That's what _I'm_ here for.' Damon protectively said. Just as Caroline was prepared to counter attack, Alaric thought it best to step in.

'You know, Damon, Caroline and Tyler _do_ have a point. I don't see how it could possibly affect Elena even more than she already is. He _is_ her brother, after all. It might help Jeremy as well …'

'I will _not_ be doing this for Jeremy's sake… I don't care _how many_ dead ex-girlfriends he sees.' Caroline sniffed at Damon's choice of words.

'What's wrong, blondie? Does the _dog_ need to be taken out?' Damon asked and took a sip of whiskey.

'_You_…' Caroline angrily started, but was interrupted by an alarmed Alaric.

'Okay… Seeing that we're all a bit over the edge today, I think it's safe to say that we should stop with the nonsense right now. Do you agree?' Nobody actually spoke – Caroline had a large pout on her face and kept her arms crossed, Tyler simply nodded and Damon toasted with his glass in agreement.

'Fine – at least we settled that one down. Now, I guess that we should start thinking about how we're going to deal with the Stefan situation. In order for us to _do_ that, we have to call Jeremy and Bonnie as well – we need all the help we can get. And I think that a meeting would be more than welcome. But… given the fact that this is not _my house_, I can't be the one to make that decision.'

As Alaric said this, all three heads turned towards Damon, who was now standing next to the window, looking at the front yard. They all knew that they couldn't get by Damon – he was the group leader now, since Stefan wasn't here anymore. Whatever he said would be done – and that included _Elena_ as well. Damon seemed to be thinking hard about something, deeply lost in his thoughts. After a minute or so, he turned around to his guests and seeing their confused faces, he said in a business-like tone.

'Caroline?'

'Yes?'

'Call Bonnie and Jeremy and tell them to come here A.S.A.P.…'

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><p>Elena was sound asleep when Damon entered the bedroom. He hesitated before he finally decided to go through this, so he quietly closed the door, letting Elena have another couple of minutes of sleep. He remained standing next to the door, for he didn't trust himself anymore around her; and the last thing Damon needed was for him to end up kissing Elena again. He knew better than that – the morning had already been eventful enough to say the least.<p>

Damon felt like an idiot for the way that he had acted downstairs – Caroline was right, she hadn't done it on purpose. But, still, Damon had become very pretentious and territorial when it came to Elena and he felt the need to protect her no matter_ who_ he insulted. '_If Caroline has to be chided in order to learn to take care of Elena, then so be it. What do __**I**__ care?'_ But Damon knew that he wasn't being honest with himself – he had grown fond of each and every one of them. A huge grin appeared on his face as he realized how things had been in the beginning and the way in which he had so stubbornly tried to keep everyone out of his heart, except for one – Elena. Who would have imagined that she would make him the better man? Not even Damon knew that he still had it in him; but it had been because of _this_ fragile human being that he found his long-lost humanity. He would be forever thankful to Elena…

Damon suddenly remembered the reason why he had come here in the first place. He looked at his wrist watch and sighed. '_Well, at least she got a two-hour sleep.'_ As Damon reached the right side of the bed where the girl was sleeping, he felt his legs come to a halt. As he watched Elena's feeble chest slowly go up and down and heard her irregular heartbeats, he wondered how someone could look as innocent and kind like Elena now did. She was sleeping in a fetal position; her hair was tied with an elastic band in a ponytail and she wasn't wearing any make-up. And yet she still looked breathtaking. Damon's heart came to a halt as he realized that Elena looked exactly like an angel. He kept that in mind as he tried to get the image of him embracing her out of his head, but there was nothing indecent about his thoughts – just pure and utter love.

After admiring the girl for a few more seconds, he carefully sat himself next to her and tenderly caressed her cheek, feeling Elena shiver under his touch. Damon saw the girl wrinkle her nose and furrow her brows as if she were a child who was displeased with the wake-up call. Damon felt his lips turn into a grin as he took in her reaction. He would have spent a lot more time doing this, but they were waiting downstairs for them to come.

'Come on, sleeping beauty, wake up…' Damon affectionately said to Elena's ear. He didn't have to wait for her reaction for too long – it seemed that she had already woken up a few seconds earlier. It took her a minute to be able to keep her eyes wide open and then she looked confused as she took in Damon's gentle expression and the sun that was up in the sky.

'Did I...'

'Wake up at 9 o'clock, go back to sleep at 11 and then wake up again at 1 pm?' Damon said, grinning. 'Yes _you_ _did_, missy.'

'I'm still tired… how is that even _possible_?' Elena was now rubbing her eyes as she shifted to a sitting position.

'Well, you'll probably sleep a lot the next days, but don't worry – it's perfectly normal.'

'Hmm, yeah, I guess so…' Damon caught the look in her eye – she had clearly remembered why she had fallen asleep again. But he surely wasn't going to bring _that_ up again. 'So… why did you wake me up?' Elena asked before yawning.

'There's someone downstairs who's waiting to see you. Well, there's two of them actually.' Elena could see Damon's expecting smile – he seemed so sure that she would be happy about the news... It took Elena a minute to realize who Damon was referring to. Her eyes went wide in shock and her mouth fell a few inches open.

'No… You didn't!' Damon laughed at her surprised face.

'I actually did.' Elena was now shaking her head in disbelief as she told Damon 'Thank you' through the loving look that she gave him.

'I want to go see them.' The girl hesitantly said as she was restlessly fidgeting.

'Then _go_ see them – nobody's stopping you.' Damon said, grinning.

That was all that took for Elena to jump out of the bed, put on her snickers and run all way down the hallway and then the stairs. When she arrived in the living-room, every single head turned in her direction, but she only saw one of the people that were present there. Elena dashed into her brother's arms, finally feeling at ease that she could see Jeremy, touch him and talk to him. She felt herself easily picked up by her brother and spinned around in the air – she was so happy that he was ok, that she couldn't even speak. It was for the first time in that day when she felt happy tears come down her cheeks.

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><p>It took Elena, Bonnie and Jeremy about fifteen minutes to hug each other, talk and say that they were sorry about everything that had happened. A lot of other sorries had been uttered as well – Damon actually apologized to an unyielding Caroline and to a friendly Jeremy. He was rewarded with another tight hug from the vampire and with a warm handshake from Jeremy. Elena apologized as well to Caroline for her rude behavior, but this time her friend didn't even let her finish before she pulled her into an iron-like embrace.<p>

After all of the formalities were accomplished, everybody sat down and directed their attention towards Damon, who was sitting next to the fireplace, holding a glass of scotch in his left hand to give him courage. He was truly nervous about what was about to come. He knew that whatever they would decide today regarding Stefan, there would be no turning back. He also feared that there would be no way of finding out where Klaus had taken him, in which case Damon would be truly lost. He pondered upon the infinite possibilities that could lie ahead of them and he had to admit that the situation didn't look good at all. However, Damon knew that, in a situation like this, the key point was team-work and a lot of optimism. He internally laughed at the words 'Elena' and 'optimism' being in the same sentence, but he soon realized that his state of spirit wasn't too far away from where Elena's stood. With an internal sigh, he quickly turned to his impatient audience and decided that he wasn't going to be anything but honest today. He put the glass of scotch down and came to stand next to the circle that the others had formed.

'Good… So, I think it's safe to say that today's meeting is officially beginning. First of all, I would like to take this chance to say how thankful I am that all of you are willing to help me find my brother.' There was a moment of silence in which each and every person present shot Damon a reassuring look.

'I probably shouldn't be so surprised that you all came to give a helping hand, given the fact that Stefan has always been such a good friend to each and every one of you. Nevertheless, he's lucky to have you guys helping him out – I couldn't wish for a better bunch of humans, vampires, werewolves and witches… If something ever happens to me, I hope that _at least half of you_ will come looking for me.' Damon's words seemed to throw everybody into a state of profound admiration towards the vampire.

'Although… I highly doubt that you will.' And that was the cue for the boys to start laughing whilst the girls simply rolled their eyes at Damon's joke.

'Ok then… We've had enough fun! Let's get down to business. As you all know, the main purpose of this meeting is to make up a plan to help us find Stefan. And I think that the best way we can succeed is if we make a strategy.' As everybody quietly nodded in agreement, Damon continued.

'I thought a lot about this and realized that the only way in which we can bring Stefan back is if we work together, undercover and efficiently. As long as we stick to these rules I'm sure that we'll eventually discover a way to knock some sense into Stefan and make him _willingly return_.'

'And what happens if he _doesn't _want to come back?' Bonnie was the one to ask. As Damon was about to answer, he saw Jeremy turn to Bonnie and shake his head in disbelief.

'What are you talking about, Bonnie? He's clearly not there because he wants to… He did it to save Damon – he wouldn't have joined Klaus if he had had another choice.'

'That's _not_ what Bonnie wanted to say, Jeremy.' Damon carefully said a few seconds later. As he saw the boy's brows furrow, he sighed and continued. 'It's not the question of him not wanting to be here. The problem is that, after a while, the blood is going to take over him. Some of you might not know this, but Stefan has always had a problem when it comes to blood. It might be hard for you to believe it, but he's much worse than _I_ used to be. And now that he's going to be forced to drink it, he'll probably never want to stop. Because, from what I can gather, Klaus can't find anything useful in the good Stefan that we all know. But in the bad side of my brother he can definitely find a use...'

'Damon, why are you making this sound as if the bad part of Stefan is worse than yours?' Bonnie asked, visibly alarmed. Damon looked a tad undecided as he pondered on whether he should be saying this or not. He owed it to all of them to be honest. So he would be honest all the way...

'Because the moment Stefan loses control, he becomes a true ripper – someone you cannot reason with or stop. He becomes much more powerful than me and a lot more dangerous. Someone I hope that you won't be needing to meet - not now or ever.'

Damon stopped as he let the information sink in. He saw three pairs of surprised eyes, whilst Alaric and Bonnie were deeply lost in their thoughts, thinking about the last time that Stefan had lost it. But Damon's eyes stopped on Elena's face. From the look of her expressionless eyes, she was thinking about the same thing – that terrible, ferocious Stefan from her nightmare. The vampire saw the girl close her eyes as if she wanted to erase that memory from her mind. As Damon was on the verge of going to sit next to Elena so as to comfort her, he saw Caroline, Jeremy and Tyler staring at him as if they thought him mentally unstable. Caroline was the one to speak first.

'Damon, I have _never_ seen Stefan lose control! He was the one who taught me all about abstinence from human blood. He consumed animal blood because he didn't want to hurt anybody. Which is _not_ what I can say about _you_… Do you honestly want us to believe that he will turn into a _ripper_?' Elena could hear Caroline's angry and skeptic tone; the girl felt outrage overcome her as she wanted to tell her friend that her words about Damon had been unfounded. Before she could even open her mouth, Elena heard Damon answer.

'Caroline… I understand why you are upset and confused. I know what I was like last year. Believe me when I say that I am sorry for hurting you so many times. And it applies to all of you present here – I'm sorry for what I did, for the way I used each and every one of you. I didn't care how I lived back then, not even a bit. But I don't want to be that monster anymore.' Silence fell as Damon's words brought everybody into a state of shock. They couldn't believe what the vampire had just said. Damon couldn't blame them…

'It doesn't even matter if you still think of me as the 'bad guy'. I don't have a problem with it.' But Elena felt deep down that Damon was lying and couldn't help but feel sorry for him. 'As long as you believe and trust me, then you can think of me as the same person that you met last year. I just need help to find Stefan. That's _all_ I ask of you…'

The vampire knew that it was somewhat useless to try to make amends now – they were never going to forget what he had done. Strangely enough, that sent a feeling of unease in his heart and the feeling only intensified as the silence continued to grow. He didn't even understand why he had said all of those things – he never felt the need to apologize or to account for his actions, it was just the way that he functioned. But lately the very essence of his soul was disintegrating and turning into something that the vampire couldn't quite comprehend yet. Damon was pulled out of his day-dreaming and his heart almost pounded in his chest as he heard Elena's fragile voice.

'You're all wrong…' Damon could see the girl looking down as if she was trying to compose herself, but her voice started in a fierce tone as she raised her eyes to meet the others' stares. 'You're being _unfair_ to Damon. He told the truth about Stefan. I get why you can't believe the truth – believe me, I had a hard time accepting it as well. But Damon is right – as much as I hate to admit it, Stefan might not want to come back or be reasoned with. That's why we need everybody's help – because we'll simply have to _make_ him come back, one way or the other... And I ask all of you to give _Damon_ a second chance; you'll be surprised to see what miracles he can make happen.'

As Elena said the last words, she obviously tried to seem detached, but Damon immediately saw through her mask. He didn't have words to express what he felt about Elena defending him in front of all her friends. As her eyes fell on Damon's surprised face, he swore that he could see a bond greater than friendship on it – the feelings that Elena had on her face seemed to be support and... _respect_. Again, he felt the love for her grow even stronger and he simply had to turn around so as not to be tempted to say or _do_ anything stupid. He felt touched, incredibly touched and impressed by the way that she had backed him up in front of this crowd. Damon then remembered the words she had told him a few hours ago in his bedroom and felt the ground beneath him shake –

_'That's why I need you to understand why I was so unfair with you. I never meant to – I promise you that I'll __**never**__ act like this again. You don't deserve to be treated the way I do – you deserve better than someone like me.'_

As her words from earlier that day came back to her, Elena felt her heart come to an ease. She was surprised to realize how good it felt to defend Damon. She knew that it was maybe inappropriate for her to protect her boyfriend's brother like that, but she couldn't help it. The moment she saw everybody shut up after Damon had apologized, something inside of her simply caught fire, making it impossible for her to be quiet. It took a moment for Elena to realize what it had been. The girl caught her breath as she discovered that she hadn't defended Damon because she had promised him to be a better friend. No, it went deeper than the sense of civic duty. She _respected_ Damon. She profoundly respected him and she didn't even know to say why or when that feeling had come to life inside of her. But, strangely enough, she didn't care – she was so shaken by the realization that she stopped wondering how this was possible. Instead, she started pondering on why she hadn't felt this respect for him earlier…

* * *

><p>The next two hours in that afternoon were spent talking about methods of locating where Stefan had gone with Klaus and different ways to bring him back home. Bonnie was disappointed enough to see that no matter how hard she tried, she simply couldn't find Stefan through her usual spells. She also had a simple explanation for this fact – Klaus had so many competent witches and warlocks at command that he and Stefan were probably protected by God-knows-what powerful spell. That didn't leave them with too many options. After everybody had a say in the matter, Damon saw that most of them believed that going together after Stefan was their best option. And the vampire knew that it really <em>was<em> their best option. However, there were a number of reasons why he immediately abolished their demand.

'First of all, it's dangerous for all of us. If it had been about Stefan going out with a bunch of blood-addicts, it would have been a piece of cake. But given the fact that he's out with the most powerful vampire of all time… Well, let's just say that it would be a suicidal mission.' When Jeremy and Caroline objected, as Damon knew they would, he continued.

'Well, let us see, shall we? Why would this be _so dangerous_ for us all?' Elena couldn't help but grin at his usual ironic tone.

'Needless to say that Elena, Jeremy and Ric are anything but powerful creatures; they're humans, who can be easily killed – with or without their toy rings. Ric has the ability to hunt down vampires, but look where this brought him – in cahoots with a bunch of them; Jeremy has now taken Matthew McConaughey's leading role in 'Ghosts of Girlfriends Past' and _Elena_ is a doppelganger – a supernatural creature with no other powers at all. Then we have our own werewolf, who, 28 days out of 29 is even less powerful than vampire Barbie over here. No offence, man…'

'None taken…' Tyler said, holding a small smile back.

'We also have our own witch, who, I admit, is one of the key pieces in our group. You would probably be _our best weapon_, Bonnie, but, from what I've heard from Jeremy, you also need some time to recover after major spells. Since we don't have a back-up witch, this advantage backfires as well.' Everybody expected for Bonnie to counter attack, but she never said a peep. Elena knew for a fact that her friend would never thoughtlessly boast about her powers just to bicker with Damon.

'Last but not least, we have Caroline, who is a few-months-old vampire. And if that's not enough to argue my statement, I'll just remember you of the way she handled Elena's escape earlier this morning.' At Damon's words, Caroline simply breathed in and out, seeming at ease with the accusation. To Elena's stupefaction, the vampire didn't say a thing, although she clearly hated being pointed at like this.

'And if it makes you feel any better, I'll admit that _I,_ as well, have no chance whatsoever when it comes to Klaus. He could have killed me in an instant two days ago, but I was lucky enough to have already had the werewolf bite. I highly doubt that I'll be as lucky _next time_.'

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><p>'Tell me again <em>why <em>you are staying here tonight and not coming home with me…' Jeremy said in a confused tone. He and Elena were sitting on the boarding house's porch while the others were still inside settling the last details of their plan. He was clearly a little pissed at his sister's decision. It's not that he didn't trust her, but it just didn't feel right for Elena to spend the night here. Damon was the one who Jeremy still couldn't trust when it came to Elena. After all, he had seen the vampire forcefully kiss his sister _once._ Who said that he couldn't do it again?

'Jer', I already told you why…' Elena sadly said.

'Yeah, I heard you… But Damon can't really make you _do_ anything, can he?'

'It's not about that. If I go back home, he'll simply come after me and will probably spend the night outside my window. I just don't want him to do that… It doesn't feel right.' Elena shook her head as she realized what was actually going on.

'You don't trust him with me, do you?' When Jeremy didn't answer, his sister made him look her in the eye. 'But _I_ trust him, Jer…'

'Yeah, I think you made it pretty clear for everybody today that you do.' Feeling her cheeks warming up, Elena started caressing her brother's hand, decided to change the subject.

'I'm sorry that I'm leaving you alone tonight, especially with everything that's going on with…' Jeremy laughed at his sister's sudden interruption.

'It's okay, you can say it – Vicki and Anna. God, Elena, you should see your face right now – it's priceless.' As Elena heard Jeremy's laughter, she couldn't help but grin at the silly situation that they were in.

'I have to say that we've been through a lot of crappy things since last year, but this is definitely the weirdest. I don't know if I'm ever going to get used to it…' as Elena said the words, she bent her knees and put them under her chin, holding her legs tight with her hands. She felt Jeremy hug her and smiled at his gesture.

'Well, at least you only need to _get used_ to the idea. I actually have to live with it.' His tone sounded soft and at ease, but Elena knew that he was trying to put on a courageous face.

'How are you handling this, Jeremy?' the boy could hear the preoccupation in his sister's voice and decided to tell her the truth.

'Well… I'm... dealing with it. It's not easy… I guess it's hard until I get used to the idea of seeing things that others can't. And there's always the problem of having two ex-girlfriends on your back all the time.' Elena's brows furrowed in surprise.

'You see them _all the time_?'

'Oh, no… No way! They appear once in a while and simply start talking to me. I think they're kind of bored. I don't' know what they're really after yet, but I think that I'll find out soon enough.' Jeremy shrugged his shoulders and went on joking. 'I'm lucky that they only appear when I'm alone – I guess they hate it when I can't focus only on them. And as long as the situation stays the same, everything will be alright.' Elena heavily sighed.

'_Nothing_ is alright, Jer… I can't say how sorry I am that things are the way they are.'

'I know, Elena… But I can't really complain. I mean, I'm still alive – that's probably _something_ to be grateful for, right?' As Jeremy saw his sister's face turn sad, he simply hugged her again, but kept her in his arms this time. Elena eventually started talking.

'I'm coming with you home tonight – I can't leave you alone. You must be so scared…' Jeremy abruptly interrupted her.

'No.' He couldn't believe that he was thinking this, but he felt that his sister would be better off with Damon. Jeremy had his own problems to deal with and the thought of not having time to help Elena recover made him rethink the whole thing. He was sure that Damon would take care of her properly. After all, everybody could see what Damon's feelings for Elena really were – everyone except for Elena.

'I'll either stay with Bonnie, or Alaric will come over again tonight. You do what you have to do here. And get some rest – you need it.' Elena felt her eyebrows furrow in surprise.

'How come you've changed your mind?' Jeremy simply looked in his sister's brown eyes and confidently said 'If you trust him, then I trust him as well.' Elena felt touched at Jeremy's faith in her.

'Thanks, Jer. I love you…'

'I love you too, Elena…'

* * *

><p>Damon was standing next to the fireplace with a glass of scotch in his hand while he was waiting for Elena to come in. He could hear the girl say her goodbyes to every single person that was now going home. He carefully listened to her words, thinking of how brave and strong she had been during the whole day. She remembered him of someone that he had profoundly loved – his mother. Not wanting to think about her in that moment, Damon quickly came back to reality as he heard Elena closing the front door and locking it. She came to a halt and the vampire thought that something wasn't right; but after a few seconds the girl appeared in the hallway door, looking somewhat uneasy.<p>

'What's wrong?' Damon carefully asked.

'I'm sorry…'

'What for?' Elena could see Damon's brows furrow in confusion.

'I didn't even ask you if I could stay here tonight.' Elena was fidgeting, clearly embarrassed by her actions. She took a few steps forward, but stopped, waiting for Damon's response.

'I think that we're _way past_ these formalities.' Damon felt an amused grin appear on his face.

'Still, I don't want to bother you in any way…'

'You could _never_ _bother me_, Elena. And you can stay here for as long as you like.' Elena couldn't help but feel thankful to Damon. He was such a good friend to her…

'But I _am_ curious as to why you chose to stay here for the night and not go home with Jeremy instead…'

'Well, you made it pretty clear that you weren't going to keep me out of your sight…' Elena suddenly felt the words get stuck in her throat as she saw Damon's expression and figured out what was going on. 'You listened to Jeremy and me talking on the porch…' It hadn't been a question – it had been a statement. Elena saw Damon's expression change to –shame? – as he was caught.

'Guilty…' he sheepishly said.

'Why did you do it?' Strangely enough, Damon couldn't hear one shred of fury or resentment in Elena's question – instead, she was just curious.

'I was making sure that you weren't planning to escape with your brother.' Elena shook her head and bit her lip at his response.

'Don't you trust me?' Damon thought about her question for a few seconds, before he said in an honest voice.

'I _do_ trust you, but not when it comes to staying safe. But… can you blame me for it?' Elena felt her cheeks flush with warmth.

'No, I can't…' Elena seemed to be thinking hard about something, before she spoke again.

'Will you be honest if I ask you something?'

'Of course.' Damon immediately stated. Seeing that Elena was undecided, he let the glass of scotch on the table and came to stand in front of the girl in normal human speed. 'You can ask me anything.'

'Did you go to Klaus before the sacrifice?' Elena could easily see Damon's surprised look. It took him a few seconds before he realized how she knew about this. It seemed that Caroline wasn't the only one who couldn't keep her mouth shut.

'It really doesn't matter.' Elena panicked as she saw a sad Damon turn around and go back towards the fireplace. She rushed to grab his arm and stopped him in his tracks. She waited a couple of seconds before he finally turned to look her in the eye.

'Please, Damon, tell me…You promised!'

'It's not important, Elena. I didn't even manage to do what I intended to.'

'You're wrong. It's important to _me_. I want to know.'

'And I don't want to burden you anymore, Elena.'

'Let _me_ be the judge of that…' God, she was so stubborn as always… But she clearly couldn't help it. It was the very essence of her soul – to worry about her loved ones. Damon felt the words slip out of his mouth as her chocolate eyes smoldered his heart.

'I did go to Klaus that night.' Elena's face suddenly turned into 'detective-mode', as Damon loved to put it.

'Why?'

'It happened after I had rescued Caroline and Tyler. I went there to ask him to postpone the sacrifice. I was sure that he was going to agree with it, since he had no werewolf or vampire. But little did I know that he had captured Jules as well. He had no reason whatsoever to postpone the whole thing.' As Elena followed Damon's words, she felt that he wasn't telling her the whole story.

'You're hiding something from me, aren't you?' As Damon was reduced to silence, Elena changed her strategy, worried that he would hide inside of himself again.

'Please let me in, Damon. You don't have to pretend when you're with me, remember?' As Elena said that, she felt her hands involuntarily go towards Damon's biceps. The next thing she knew was that she was tightly holding his hands through the soft material of his black T-shirt. The girl could have sworn that she felt Damon shiver, but it had probably been her imagination. She was surprised to see his eyes temporarily close as he asked 'What _exactly_ do you want to know?'

'Why you went there… and what you did after you found out about Jules.' Damon finally opened his eyes, piercing Elena's. A sad smile appeared on his lips.

'You know _why_ I went there – I was trying to save _you_. Save you from an eternity of bloodlust and killing innocent people. And save _myself_ from a lifetime of you hating me for what I had done to you…' Elena felt her heart melt as Damon's words sank in.

'So when I heard that he wanted to turn somebody else, I told him to use _me_ as the vampire in the sacrifice.' Elena felt her mouth slightly open in shock.

'I had no idea that Klaus was going to go after Jenna until after he had left.' Damon could see Elena flinch at hearing her aunt's name. 'But he still wouldn't have wanted me – I was of no use to him, he said that my blood wasn't pure. Then I was unconscious for a few minutes and later on I found out from Katherine that he could sense the werewolf bite. But it was too late to do anything for her…'

Elena felt as if the entire world had gone upside down. She couldn't have imagined that Damon had regretted his actions so much that he had done everything possible so as to stop the sacrifice. He was the one who had _risked his life_ to save Caroline and Tyler and ended up being bitten by the werewolf. He had actually gone to Klaus and offered himself on a silver plate, just so he could _spare somebody else's life_. And, last but not least, Damon had gone that morning to apologize to Elena and she had so rudely and determinately refused to grant him the forgiveness that he truly deserved. And she had been so unfair and insensitive towards him that she now felt uncommonly ashamed at herself.

Damon saw small tears running down on Elena's pink cheeks and he instantly panicked. He didn't want her to cry anymore – he couldn't stand seeing her breaking down again. The vampire gently took Elena's chin in his palm and directed her eyes so as to meet his.

'I'm so sorry, Elena… I wish I could have saved Jenna. Everything that's happened was my fault and my fault only – Jenna, John, Stefan… I'm to blame for them all.'

As Elena's tears intensified, Damon was positive that she was crying because she was yet again reminded of losing her loved ones. He internally cursed himself for being such an idiot. But Damon was completely wrong… It was true, Elena felt the pain of losing so many people still hovering inside of her, but she wasn't crying because of Jenna, John or even Stefan. She was crying because she had been blind for _such a long time_… She was internally cursing herself for the fact that she hadn't realized how much Damon cared about her. Elena felt as if her heart was about to burst out of her chest – _this_ was the real Damon... He was the one who would have done _anything_ for her, the one who would have _died_ for her, the one who cared about everyone she loved and who would have sacrificed anything and _anyone_ just to be sure that she was safe and sound. Hell, he had obliged her to _drink his blood_ just to be sure that she would still be alive, one way or the other. And the funny thing was that Elena finally got it – he _needed_ her. Damon desperately needed her, no matter how he got to be with her. And he hadn't asked for anything in return, apart from her friendship. It was as if Damon was her very one loving, guardian angel…

Elena was pulled out of her reverie by Damon's preoccupied eyes. He clearly didn't understand why she was acting so strangely. And Elena thanked God that the vampire couldn't read her mind. What could she possibly say or do to make it all better now? _Nothing_… Everything had passed beside them – she had thrown away every opportunity. And now she couldn't do anything about it anymore – because she was Stefan's. What she felt for Damon was real and was burning inside of her, but she simply couldn't bring herself to tell him everything that she felt. Because she didn't want to be like Katherine – she didn't want to bring Stefan and Damon apart; she didn't want to go from one brother to the other like an easy woman; she didn't want to break Stefan's heart as she had done with Damon's. But Elena needed Damon _as much as he needed her_ – that was why she had kissed him last night. She just hadn't realized that until now... Her voice came out shaky and pained.

'_Why_, Damon? Why are you blaming yourself for everything? Not every bad thing in the world is _your_ fault… God, if you could only see what I now see…' Elena admired each and every bit of Damon's face as she lovingly said those words. She saw Damon's eyebrows furrow and his face muscles tighten as he pondered upon her words.

'Thank you, Damon…' As confusion blackened the vampire's elegant features, Elena slowly closed the distance between them and placed a timid kiss on Damon's cheek, whispering the words close to his ear.

'Thank you for always choosing _me_…' Damon felt himself shaken down to his core by Elena's words. He thought that he was dreaming and wished that he would never wake up. He couldn't get bored of replaying her words over and over again until he realized that she had actually said them. The vampire forgot about everything else – it was _just him and Elena_. Damon felt his right hand reach out to Elena's cheeks and the next thing he knew was that his fingers were tenderly wiping the girl's tears.

As the girl's chocolate eyes closed at the feeling of his touch, Damon gently cuddled Elena, capturing her in a tight embrace. He couldn't say a thing, he was savoring Elena's every breath, heartbeat and the feeling of having her pressed against his body like that. He felt as if he was going mad. He couldn't stand it anymore – his favorite smell of strawberries flooded his entire being, making it impossible to move. His head was screaming at him not to prolong this moment, but every time he had Elena in his arms like this, a weird kind of paralysis kicked in and he simply couldn't let go of her. After a while in which neither of them made a gesture of pulling away, Damon realized that Elena had stopped crying. He felt surprisingly pleased with himself – he might as well add the 'stop crying' point to his growing list of things that he did best when it came to Elena. As if the girl could sense his characteristic smirk forming on his lips, she gently heightened her head so as to look at the vampire.

Elena had a momentary whiplash as she realized that something was different about Damon's eyes – they resembled Stefan's eyes so much, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She thought hard about it for a few seconds before she felt her breath getting stuck in her throat and her heart freakishly accelerating. She surely remembered, but she couldn't understand how this could happen to Damon as well. The only moments when Stefan had looked at Elena like that was when he had been either hungry or… _aroused_. Elena felt a shiver run down her spine as she realized that neither option was better than the other – especially since she suspected the worse, given the situation that they were both in. As Damon saw the girl's reaction, he quickly retreated, leaving Elena uncovered and confused. He was sure enough that she couldn't understand what was happening with him, but from the shocked look on her face, it seemed that she wasn't quite that off.

'I'm sorry, Elena… I haven't fed since early this morning.' As Damon said the words, he quickly concentrated on calming down the veins from under his eyes. Elena thought they looked like they were about to pop out from under his skin. Strangely enough, Elena couldn't help but observe the fact that Damon didn't try to hide his 'faults' from her, as Stefan used to. She felt relieved though, since she had clearly been wrong about Damon.

'It's okay, Damon… I understand.' Elena could see the vampire decided to leave the room, but he seemed to change his mind in the last second as he turned around to face her.

'I want to thank you as well, Elena – for _defending me_ today in front of everybody. I had almost forgotten what it was like.' The girl could see the pain that Damon was clearly trying to hide from her and she winced at the acknowledgement of his feelings.

'That's what friends are for…' She couldn't bring herself to say more or less. But her answer seemed to bring a tiny smile to Damon's lips and that was all that she needed to be at ease.

After Damon hastily rushed from the living-room and Elena heard the basement's door loudly open, she went over to the couch, which was positioned right in front of the fireplace. Just as she was about to sit down, she glanced towards the coffee table and saw the glass that Damon had left out of his hands a few minutes before. Elena's fingers started convulsively trembling as she saw that his glass wasn't full of scotch as she had thought, but of… _blood_. An uncontrolled shiver coursed through her entire body as she realized what had _really_ happened earlier with Damon…

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><p><em><strong>I honestly can't wait to see what you guys think of chapter 5! Hope you liked it... Until next time! :)<strong>_


	6. Wake me up when September ends

**Author's note : Wow, I can't believe that I finished chapter 6 as well... I'm so happy and I honestly can't wait to see what you guys think of it! I'll be waiting for your reviews impatiently. Especially since I've decided to include a future scene from the first episode, which I recently came upon on the internet. I am not sure whether I'm allowed to do that or not, but I tried to make the scene a tad different and to complete it as well, in order to make it a bit funnier :). Anyway, I hope you enjoy it! This chapter's title is inspired from Green Day's beautiful song - 'Wake me up when September ends '.**

**Disclaimer : I do not own the Vampire Diaries. My story centres around the characters of the TV show that belong to their rightful owners (TV script by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec) and of Vampire Diaries series written by L.J. Smith. I do not intend any infringement upon any music that might inspire chapter titles or parts of my story.**

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><p><strong>6. WAKE ME UP WHEN SEPTEMBER ENDS<strong>

* * *

><p><em>September 14th 2011 <em>

_Dear Diary,_

_I can't believe how long it's been since I last wrote. Four months – __four whole months__… It's never happened to me before – not even after the car accident last year._

_I think it's safe to say that it's been a long summer indeed – a summer which has, however, turned out to be eventless. So many things have happened, that I couldn't possibly write about each and every one of them. But I feel as if nothing concrete has actually occurred; nothing which could give me the slightest hope of ever finding Stefan again. _

_I've spent the last months praying, hoping and believing that Stefan would somehow find a way to come back, to call or at least text me. But he hasn't done any of these things… He hasn't given any sign of his state, let alone his whereabouts. Damon thinks that he and Klaus have gone to Europe __–__ to the birthplace of the Original family. But even he can't be sure as to where Klaus might have taken Stefan. The worst part of it all is that we don't even know whether Stefan is still alive or not… We also haven't heard any news from Katherine - the only person who knows the way Klaus operates - since she brought us the cure, and Damon highly doubts that she's anywhere near Mystic Falls anymore; she's most likely still running and hiding. When I think about it, Klaus wouldn't have any reason to dispose of Stefan. But the moment I calm myself down, doubt starts eating my insides, making it impossible for me to be sure that he's safe. And so I spend my days and nights thinking, worrying and regretting everything that's happened. I know that Damon is trying to put on a brave face as well, but every shred of his optimism and good-will is an act, which only I can see through. The others think that I am exaggerating – they haven't actually confronted me about it, but I can see the looks on their faces when they think that I'm not paying attention. It's as if they're sorry for me… No! It's even worse than that – it's as if they pity the girl that I have become._

_I can't blame any of them. The Elena who they knew four months ago is gone. And I know that I've become this sad, pathetic human being, who spends all of her free time in her bedroom, looking out the window and hoping that her boyfriend will soon appear in the front yard again. That's all I've been left with – __hope__. A stupid, irrational kind of hope which is slowly eating the inside of my soul, making it impossible to think about anything else… A few days ago school started and I couldn't even bring myself to get out of bed on the first day. I was lucky enough that Bonnie stopped by to pick me up. When she saw that I wasn't dressed and hadn't eaten, she forced me out of bed, shook me well and woke me up from the weird state in which I was simply drowning. _

_Everybody around me is now treating me with kid gloves. Jeremy is the one who wakes me up every morning by knocking on my door, makes breakfast and spends pretty much time with me doing whatever boring thing that I do in my room. I feel sorry for making him suffer so much when he sees me like this. He seems to be handling it okay, but I sometimes see through his mask and there's nothing good behind it. At least I'm being his distraction from all the 'Vicki and Anna drama'… It's been hard for me to get used to the idea that my brother can now see dead vampires – as if there weren't enough weird things already going on in our lives. Jeremy doesn't seem so displeased with the whole situation; he actually appears to be dealing with it quite smoothly. The girls don't seem to be that bad as we all had feared; the only thing that bugs Jeremy greatly is the fact that they're extremely jealous of Bonnie. And from I've gathered, they've been meddling with their relationship for a while now. But Jeremy's still working on it. I hope that things will settle down eventually – he deserves it._

_Bonnie was initially the worst when it came to me, since she couldn't stand seeing me in the state that I was. She eventually got over it and simply let me mope around, feeling sorry for myself; she comes to visit me every day and brings me small treats such as funny spells to keep me busy from all the thinking and suffering. But most of the time I just pretend that I'm having fun so that she doesn't worry so much. She's got enough drama in her life with Jeremy's problem that I have no intention of dragging her into my mess as well. Bonnie has also been preoccupied with reading all the Grimoirs that she obtained from Lukas's father, Dr Martin. She's been trying really hard to find a spell which could help her contribute to the whole 'find-Stefan plan'. About a month ago she gave up after searching all of the spell books __twice__ and decided that the best solution was for her to try and find her cousin Lucy and ask her for help. But that has turned out to be another issue, since she couldn't track her down. Bonnie and Jeremy were talking about going to look after her, but they're still not sure when that will happen. _

_Once in a while, Bonnie and Caroline come to spend the night with me and we throw big and noisy slumber parties; they aren't as fun as they used to be, although Caroline is doing her best to make every occasion special for my sake. She is the person who's been constantly nagging me to get over the state that I'm still in. I know that she's well intended, but I've grown somewhat annoyed and immune to all her pep-talk. Just yesterday morning we've had a confrontation in my bedroom and bickered upon the fact that she was planning to celebrate my 18th birthday this Friday. It had apparently been a surprise and she was extremely angry at Damon, who slipped that fact when he was trying to make me feel better. I tried to get through to her and explain that I'm not in the mood of having a party, but she didn't let it go. It was like she was an ancient warrior, defending her idea with such ferocity that she eventually won the battle, since I'd gotten bored of hearing her arguments five times in a row. So it seems that I'll be having a birthday party after all…_

_Another problem we've been dealing with has been the question of who our legal guardian is going to be from now on. A few days after Jenna's funeral, we received a peculiar visit from sheriff Forbes, who was accompanied by a social worker. The sheriff had come to interrogate us about Jenna and John's mysterious and sudden deaths. We decided to say that there had been a gas leak inside the house and that both Jenna and John had been in the house when the tragedy happened. However, since sheriff Forbes found out about her daughter and the other vampires in town, she wasn't so keen on hearing us out. I guess that she completely lost her faith in us since she caught me last May at the Salvatore house and afterwards when I escaped from her office. So we had to take extra precautions so that they didn't have any reason to doubt us. With Damon and Caroline's help, we managed to compel a few key people so as to turn the entire interrogation in our favor. That only left us with the problem of seeking a legal guardian. Jeremy and I had to spend a total of three weeks of formalities such as signing numberless papers, which we knew would prolong for an indefinite period. When it comes to me, there isn't any problem whatsoever, since I'm turning 18 in a few days. But Jeremy is only 16 and it seems that the law states that he has to be assigned a legal guardian. We thought about it for quite a while – we have no living relative, since both our parents, aunt and uncle have died. After I pondered upon the matter, I told the sheriff that I would like to take custody of Jeremy after I turned 18. But she of course told me that it's not possible since I'm not even 21 of age and still in high school. _

_It wasn't until Damon came up with the idea of asking Alaric to file the request for adoption that we found our peace. Sheriff Forbes was clearly not at ease with the situation, but she couldn't actually do anything concerning Alaric. To be honest, we had a solid alibi i.e. the fact that Alaric had dated my aunt for a while and that he was a model citizen who could easily take care of two problematic teenagers. But once again, the sheriff seemed to have lost her faith in everybody and she put on a hard game concerning Alaric as well. It wasn't until Caroline fought with her for a few days in a row and knocked some sense into her mother that she finally dropped the whole persecuting attitude. In truth, the sheriff hasn't been that bad on us. I mean, she seems to have forgotten all about the vampire stuff. Damon was pretty hurt to see that Liz didn't even want to look at him, let alone talk to him, but at least she got off our backs with the whole legal guardian situation. The only problem was that we hadn't spoken to Alaric when we had told the sheriff our wish. Both Jeremy and I were extremely relieved to find out from our history teacher that he had no problem with the whole matter. In fact, he was extremely happy that we had thought about him for such an important matter. I never heard Jeremy say it out loud, but I guess we both feel that Alaric is the only person that we could have accepted as our legal guardian. The fact that he's helped and protected us so many times makes him a kind of uncle in a strange way. And well, there's always my dream, in which Alaric actually __is__ our uncle… _

_Oh, yes… I had almost forgotten about the nightmares. Strangely enough, the first few days after Stefan's departure were free of the cruel dreams. I often wondered how it could be that I was lucky enough to have these dreamless nights. Damon's explication seemed to be the most decent that I could find as well – I had been simply too exhausted to even dream. Of course, he never knew what I was really dreaming about, for I didn't want him to be more worried about me than he already was. So I kept my mouth shut about the whole matter, especially after the nightmares started haunting me again. In earnest, there is nothing that I could do about it, except stay awake for the rest of my life, which really isn't the best option that I have. __When I look back upon these last months, I honestly don't know how I made it through them. There were moments when I felt so hopeless, that I simply wanted it all to end. Of course, I've never been the suicidal type – it just doesn't fit my profile. But that was clearly not something that Damon could understand, since he did everything in his power to be with me every minute of every day, 24/7. Of course, he couldn't achieve that record, but he got pretty close to it. _

_I spent a total of two weeks at the Boarding house until June came. Two weeks of solitude, in which I didn't see, talk to or meet anyone else apart from Damon. It was enough for me to get my strength back and be ready to face the harsh reality that was waiting for me outside the sanctum that Damon's house had become. __I guess that 'sanctum' isn't the best word to describe what that period spent there really meant. No, it was way better than that – it felt like __heaven.__ I was allowed to feel whatever I wanted to feel… be whoever I felt the need to be… and do whatever I had to do. I cried, suffered and didn't get out of bed for days in a row and Damon was always there for me. He took care of the human wreck that I was back then; he let me go through the entire process of mourning and heeling and was my best friend. Most importantly, he didn't make me feel as if my emotions were unfounded or that I was letting my life pass me by, as the other always did. Not even close… Damon was there for me when I wanted nobody else in my life. He was there when I needed him most. And he had been there even when I was suffering after his brother. I can't even imagine how hard it must have been for him to see me like that, to have to deal with that person and to be obliged to deal with all of his feelings in the way he managed to. _

_I have to admit that I have always underestimated Damon. And, sadly enough, I continue to do that. It's not something that I can control, though. To be honest, he's turned all of my perceptions about him upside down during this summer. Everything that I thought was bad about him, he made it magically disappear. I for one could have sworn that he would be the first to tell me to get over Stefan – that was not the case. He let me pour my soul out for as long as I wished and never asked me a question when I clearly didn't want to talk about it. Although Jeremy has taken good care of me this entire time, I must say that I don't know what I would've done if it weren't for Damon… He deserves a golden star for the way he handled me. He never complained or gave up on me and never really left my side, no matter how hard he wanted to go and help his brother. _

_There was, however, one particular episode, which I still can't completely understand. At the beginning of July, after we all had failed at finding a way to track down Stefan, I arrived at the boarding house to pick up something – I don't even remember why I was there exactly. Every time that I would stop by his house, Damon would come outside having a wide smile on his face to greet me before I even stopped the engine of my car. That day, however, he hadn't appeared on the porch. So I quietly got out of my car and into the house, afraid that something wrong had happened. As I arrived at the door separating the hallway from the living room in complete silence, I saw Damon standing in front of the window, clearly ignorant of my presence. I couldn't quite explain what he was doing – at first I could've sworn that he was looking out the window at something in the back yard. But then I realized that he was entranced by something – probably a memory, since he hadn't even heard me come through the door. _

_When I gently said his name, he pinned me to the wall with such force and in such a short notice that I almost had a heart attack. His eyes looked unusually red and all of the muscles on his face were tight, while the veins underneath his eyes were so black that I could have sworn that there was something else than blood coursing through them. After a few seconds, he realized the mistake that he had made and hastily released me from his enchainment. He had done no damage to me, but was extremely sorry about acting like that. I wasn't mad at him – how could I be? But when I asked him why he had attacked me, I was surprised to hear him say that he thought I was Katherine. That caught me a little off guard, although he explained that he had been rememorizing certain events from the past that included the vampire. At first I felt as if he was lying about it and wanted to insist upon the matter. But then I realized that he had no reason to lie to me. And although I was relieved, I felt uneasy as I thought about the fact a bit more. It suddenly dawned upon me that I was upset with the fact that Damon was still thinking about Katherine after everything that the bitch had done to him. She had indeed saved his life – something that __I__ couldn't have achieved back then – but she also made him suffer a lot. After all, 146 years is a long time... _

_After this episode, I couldn't help but notice a sudden change in Damon's behavior. It wasn't until he told me that he wanted to go looking after Stefan that I realized that he was feeling guilty about staying around in Mystic Falls and not going after his brother from the beginning. I had expected this to happen. In earnest, it caught me off guard, since Damon had made it clear enough that going after Stefan on the road was the most dangerous thing that we could've done. He was sure that his brother would eventually come back to Mystic Falls and that we could catch him and make him stay here for good. But that hadn't happened, as it hasn't happened until the present day. And I'm guessing that, back then, Damon was starting to lose faith in our strategy of waiting to see what would happen. Although I was surprised, I told him that I was decided to accompany him in his journey. That was when hell broke loose… We didn't fight – no; we haven't fought since that awful day in May. But the fact that I wanted to go with him made Damon lose his mind and he reacted in the strangest way that I have ever seen him. _

Elena suddenly stopped writing in her diary as the memory of that afternoon started to replay in her mind. She remembered it perfectly.

_She was standing by the window, as she always did, and was thinking about Stefan. That was when she heard someone knocking on her door and then a sad-looking Damon entered her room, wanting to talk to her about something. After Elena found out that he wanted to go after Stefan, she asked Damon in a shocked voice._

'_So, that means you're _**_leaving_**_ Mystic Falls?' Elena could see Damon's eyes sadden as he heard the hidden meaning behind her words. She had actually asked him if he was leaving _**_her_**_… He gently took her hands in his and told her in a decided tone._

'_Just for a while, Elena… I'll come back as soon as I can.' Elena could see that he clearly meant it. But, strangely enough, that wasn't enough for her. _

'_And what if you _**_won't_**_ come back? The same way Stefan hasn't…' _

'_That's __not__ possible; the situation is completely different…. And, plus, I have **a reason** to come back…' Elena felt her breathing dangerously slowing down as she saw Damon's penetrating stare. _

'_Because I promised myself that I would protect you, no matter what.' As Elena watched Damon's beautiful blue eyes, she decided to take matter in her own hands. _

'_You don't need to promise me that you'll come back – that's not necessary… 'Cause I'm coming_**_ with you_**_.' It had been the statement that would forever change Damon's perspective. After a few seconds of staring intently into her eyes, Elena heard Damon speak – it wasn't, however, the harsh voice that she had expected._

'_No, you're not…' Before Elena could reply, Damon continued in the same gentle tone while caressing her cheeks. 'I haven't gone through all of this effort just to put you in danger like this… You're not going, I can't allow that.' _

'_You can't make me stay here… And I __will **not**__ be letting you go after Stefan alone. You said it yourself – it's a suicidal mission. If I come with you, we'll keep each other safe. I am _**_not _**_taking no for an answer…' Elena felt the air suddenly change and the next thing she knew was that Damon was standing behind her, tightly holding her body in his arms. It took Elena a total of five seconds to realize what was really happening. Damon had his left hand around her waist and both her hands, making it impossible for the girl to move, while his other hand was gently holding her head to the right, leaving her neck completely exposed. The realization made Elena shudder. That was when she heard Damon's velvet voice whispering in her left ear._

'_Why in the world__ would you ever think that I could need _**_your help_**_? Elena… You forget so easily how breakable you truly are.' As the words were coming out of Damon's mouth, Elena felt his breath on her neck and her heartbeat frantically accelerated. He was obviously trying to scare her – well, she wouldn't be so easily convinced. _

'_You can't even **imagine** what a frail target the blood makes you…' The worry in Damon's voice was definitely there, although the vampire was trying to mask it. However, she wasn't fooled for a second. As Damon gently rubbed Elena's neck with his fingers, the girl couldn't help but tremble under his touch. She suddenly remembered about her brother, who was in his bedroom, listening to music and prayed that he wouldn't come barging in on them. Elena couldn't even imagine how Jeremy would react seeing Damon holding her against her will like that. She was pulled out of her reverie by Damon's silky voice. _

'_This is _**_all_**_ it takes to kill you in a total of five small seconds…' Despite the obvious message that he was trying to send, Elena was entranced by the vampire's words… And then she suddenly felt two small sharp points grazing the skin of her neck, looking for the perfect place to pierce the flesh. That was when Elena felt her whole body go on fire as the sensation of fear flooded her system. It was true that she completely trusted Damon, but not when it came down to **this**… Elena desperately wanted to tell Damon to stop, but she couldn't even breath right, let alone speak._

'_You wouldn't even realize what was happening before it all ended…' As Damon stopped talking, he once again carefully placed his fangs on the spot where Elena felt her blood deliriously pulsating through her artery. Her eyes involuntarily closed as another feeling intensely invaded her body – exhilaration. Elena could easily hear the desire that hid behind Damon's words. The desire to insert his fangs into her skin, to feel the flesh rip and to drink every single drop of her blood… For a moment – just for a moment – Elena wondered what it would be like if Damon actually did that. She knew that she wasn't thinking straight, but she couldn't get that strange sensation of being with Damon in such an intimate way out of her head. As Elena sensed his fangs retreat from her skin, she felt her entire body relaxing, once the immeasurable pressure was gone. Once again, she felt Damon's breath on her neck, as he brought his lips close to her ears._

'_Do you still think that you should be coming **with me**?' But Damon didn't receive any response from Elena. He could only hear her heavy, loud pants, which she was desperately trying to calm down. After a few seconds, Damon slowly let go of the girl, making sure that she wasn't going to faint. He seemed to realize that he had gone a bit overboard with the whole display of his power. But he realized as well that, knowing Elena, this was the only way in which he could prove her how powerless she really was. It took the girl a minute or so to win control over her body again. When she did, she turned towards Damon, having a somewhat hurt and shaken expression on her face._

'_Fine, so you've proved your point… Are you happy now?' It was like the night when Vicki died all over again - that was when Elena had felt extremely weak and fragile compared to Damon. But now she also felt upset that she had been put to the wall by him like that. The vampire now seemed to be regretting his action; he didn't try to apologize though, because that was **exactly** what he had intended – to scare the girl just enough so that she would stop with these brave stunts..._

'_You wouldn't have understood in any other way…' With that, Damon suddenly turned towards the bedroom's door, having a pained expression on his face… As his hand took hold of the doorknob, Elena's voice broke down…_

'_Don't go, Damon…' The moment the words left her mouth, she felt guilty about them. However, there was another feeling coursing through her system and that was fear – pure fear that she would lose Damon as well… As the vampire's eyes turned questioning, Elena continued. _

'_I don't want you to go…' The next second, Elena found herself holding Damon's palms in hers and pleadingly saying a bunch of clingy, pathetic things to him. 'If I can't come with you, then I don't want you to leave.' _

'_Elena…' Damon had desperately tried to reason with her. 'I'm doing this for __Stefan __– he's **my brother**! I can't let him pay for the fact that he saved my life… I have to see that he's at least alright…' Elena could hear the desperation that flooded Damon's being, but in a moment of complete selfishness, she heard herself beg – yes! Literally **beg**._

'_I know you do… Believe me, I know, Damon' – 'cause that's **exactly** what __I__ want as well… If you took me __with you__, then I wouldn't have any problem with this. But since you don't want to endanger my life, I can't let you do this by yourself either.'_

'_There's no other way, Elena… He might not come back if I don't go after him.' Elena nodded, nervously fidgeting with her hands._

'_I realize that. I can learn to live with it.' Damon's answer was exactly what she had expected._

'_Now you're **lying**…'_

'_Maybe; but I've already lost too many people … You're **everything** I have left, Damon... I can't lose you as well…'_

As Elena remembered Damon's eyes the moment she had told him that, her heart literally winced at the pain that Damon's feelings for Elena had brought him. It hadn't been fair from her part to ask him to stay in Mystic Falls. It had been irrational and egoistic and she knew that she hadn't had any right to do that. She pondered upon her words and wondered how she had been so courageous back then. If Damon would ask her now what she felt for him, she knew for a fact that she wouldn't tell him the truth. But still – she had begged him not to leave her, although he had wanted to go find Stefan, her boyfriend whom she loved and missed… Elena felt her head swirling at the thought of the huge mess that she was in. Instead of letting go of her diary, she simply kept on writing.

_With Damon things are complicated. In fact, the word 'complicated' doesn't even **begin** to cover it. The feelings are there – they're present and I don't know how to tame them anymore. But I know what I've done – I've messed up in every possible way. And I can't turn back time, what's happened is gone and in the past. It doesn't even matter what I feel about Damon anymore, because I don't have **any right** to do this to Stefan. He's always been there for me and he's loved me more than words could express. No – I have no reason to forget him and go on. We still have a chance at finding him, and I feel that he's going to come back. He **will** return – because he loves me as much as I love him. Damon will eventually get over me; and the same goes for me as well. I know why I have feelings for him – he's good-looking, funny and a good friend. But that's all he's ever going to be to me – a good friend. I could never see myself next to him in a couple of years, walking hand in hand in the park, having romantic moonlight dinners or him escorting me to a friend's dinner party.. It's just not who Damon is. But Stefan is **precisely** what Damon isn't. He is what's best for me… _

Elena felt her head heavy. She suddenly threw her pen with such incredible force that it smacked into her wardrobe and broke into pieces, while she took her head in her hands, deeply sighing. When had her life become so complicated? In what God-damned moment had everything gotten so out of control? She had never before felt the need to put both Salvatore brothers face to face and to compare them. This wasn't who she was. It wasn't as if she could go into the boarding house shopping for the better guy for her. People simply didn't do that. It was crazy and she knew it; she couldn't just _choose_ between Stefan and Damon. She didn't even know why she was thinking of choosing, since Stefan had always been her choice. As she re-read the last paragraph in her diary, Elena could only think of one single word to describe the last phrases -_ a lie_. It was for the first time that Elena wasn't so sure that Stefan was still her first choice...

* * *

><p>The water had been pouring in the shower for a good ten minutes until Damon realized that it was beginning to turn cold. Not that he minded – vampires weren't that sensitive when it came to temperature as humans. In fact, they liked a freezing shower once in a while – it would take away some of their unwanted emotions. That was exactly what Damon had intended, since he had spent the entire morning thinking yet again about Elena and Stefan. Some people would have probably gone mad by now if they had been in Damon's place. Everything that he could see, hear and dream about was Elena. And every time that he started thinking about <em>'his Elena'<em>, Stefan's face would appear in front of his eyes, making it impossible for Damon to live with himself.

He honestly wondered how he had survived the summer. A few months ago he would have been more than happy to have the entire house at his disposal. He would have rejoiced in the happiness of not having to see his brother each and every day, especially when he was with Elena. Damon couldn't help but clench his fists as memories of Elena's heavy moans and pants - from when she was with Stefan - invaded Damon's mind. It had been pure torture for him to see every kiss that they shared, to hear her say his brother's name when they were being intimate, and to have to smell Elena's flavor on Stefan's skin each and every day for such a long time. It had been unnerving to witness all her displays of affection towards Stefan, especially since Damon had known all of this time that it could have been _him_ receiving all of her love and not his brother.

Yes, Damon would have normally reached seventh heaven since he didn't have to be a part of all that torture anymore. But he had definitely never wanted it to happen_ like this_. Okay, so he was alone here in Mystic Falls without his do-gooder of a brother. He had Elena each and every day for himself. He should have felt like he was the luckiest guy in the world. But, instead, his brother was gone because he had rescued him, and Elena was desperately hankering after Stefan; which left Damon having to deal with all the broken pieces. And, boy,_ was he having a ball…_ Apart from the fact that he had no idea how and where his brother was, he couldn't even go looking after him, since he had promised the person he loved most in the world that he wouldn't put himself in danger like that. So Damon had waited for four whole months; and time had passed, even when it seemed as if it was never going to. It had passed and it had partially healed some wounds as well. But the worst part was that he was starting to believe that Stefan wouldn't come back after all. He had hoped – Elena and him had been the only ones who had hoped that Stefan would return; they had suffered together, side by side and had supported each other whenever it was the case. But they had also deluded themselves into believing that miracles could actually happen…

Damon closed his eyes as he remembered the pain that he had to see every day on Elena's pretty face. He knew that the only thing she wanted was for Stefan to come back to her, but Damon couldn't help but feel his heart jubilating as her words were forcefully returning to his head. '_You're **everything** I have left, Damon... I can't lose you as well…'_ Although he realized that her words didn't hold any loving meaning in them, Damon still thought that each and every syllable was the sweetest he'd ever heard. If Elena only knew that he felt the exact same thing about her… To be completely honest, Damon had tried so hard to get Elena out of his head and out of his heart… The fact that he saw her day after day probably made it ten times harder for him to love her less. But as Damon thought about it, he doubted that he could ever forget about Elena, even if he was at the other end of the world. In earnest, that had been one of the reasons why he had wanted to leave Mystic Fall in search for his brother – to try and force the girl out of his soul. He had felt extremely selfish, since the desire of leaving should have centered only around finding Stefan, and not around forgetting _his brother's girlfriend_. But Damon had hoped that he would succeed in both departments. In the end, he miserably failed to achieve both of his goals as he couldn't help but say yes to Elena's pleading eyes…

'_**Damn you**, Elena! Damn you for making me so weak and vulnerable!'_ The moment he thought the words, something inside of him caught fire – it was as if he had uttered the most infamous of all profanities. He regretted the words immediately, feeling that he had made the biggest mistake possible. He couldn't help it though – his sweet, caring, beautiful Elena had turned him into this pathetic creature that had no idea where his place was anymore. Damon sometimes felt that the vampire side in him was powerfully regressing and turning into ashes as his humanity grew stronger day by day. And the more this humanity occupied a greater place in his soul, the more his love for Elena flourished, making it impossible for Damon to be with her every day and to pretend that he was just her friend. They still hadn't spoken about the kiss they'd shared in May. They had both chosen to completely ignore the event, but only because he had given Elena the chance to make that decision. Since her first step never came, Damon decided that he would wait as well – he didn't want to push her into doing anything she didn't want to, especially since she still hadn't recovered from the whole 'Stefan episode'. Damon wasn't sure that she would ever completely recover from this loss…

Just as he was starting to clean his body with soap, he thought he heard a noise downstairs… His ears entered the super-sonic state and he tensely waited to hear another sound that might give away the intruder. Damon felt his hands suddenly balled into fists as he had definitely heard the second sound. His vampire quick thinking kicked into full speed and he carefully got out of the shower, leaving the water on so as not to give him away. As he was about to pull his jeans on, his hand froze as the sound of Elena's car engine went off and the girl got out of her car, noisily slamming the door. That same instant, Damon heard noise coming from Stefan's bedroom and he ran at full speed, arriving in his brother's room in an instant. However, the intruder had already left, leaving the room exactly the way it had been. As the intruder's smell filled Damon's nostrils, the vampire froze with shock and that's when he heard Elena's footsteps on the front porch. But Damon could still sense the other vampire in the house and he almost had a panic attack as he realized that Elena was probably the target.

After Elena closed the front door of the boarding house, she suddenly came to a stop, as she wondered why Damon hadn't come to greet her yet. A few seconds later she heard a noise in the basement and quickly realized that the vampire was probably having his breakfast. The girl grinned as she pictured the _'ferocious_' Damon drinking from a blood bag. Her grin, however, lasted only for a second, as she remembered all of the empty blood bags that they had found in Alaric's flat four months ago. Three days after the sacrifice, Damon and Ric had decided to inspect the teacher's apartment, since it had been Klaus's last residence. The obvious purpose of their investigation was to find any proof about what had exactly happened to Stefan. And they had indeed found consistent proof – in the form of a dozen blood bags, scattered all around Alaric's living-room. It took Damon a total of five seconds to put all the pieces together, whilst Elena had stood there in complete and utter shock. In earnest, Damon had tried to convince her not to come, patiently asking her to be reasonable and simply stay at the boarding house and rest. But Elena couldn't do that – she explained to him that she couldn't stay away from anything that had to do with finding Stefan and Damon had eventually agreed to let her come along. Elena, however, had lied to the vampire. The true reason had been that she simply couldn't stand being alone at the boarding house for more than a few minutes. She probably wouldn't have been alone, since Bonnie or Caroline would have come to babysit her; but that was exactly the problem – Elena hadn't wanted anyone else's company apart from Damon's. She had found a comfort in him, which nobody else could have offered her; a comfort which was mixed with support and understanding. So the moment that Elena herself realized that all of those blood bags had been drunk by Stefan, Damon simply held her in his arms, letting her digest the information and recover from the discovery.

Although three whole months had passed from that episode, Elena still felt a bit queasy as the memory unfolded in front of her eyes. She thought she had gotten over that, but apparently she hadn't. She forcefully pushed that thought out of her mind and proceeded to the living-room. That was when she realized that her hair was a tad annoying as it clung to her skin. She couldn't believe what a hot September day it was – the weather was usually already colder by this time of the year. Without even realizing it, she aimed her right hand at her purse and took out a rubber elastic. While she was tying her hair into a ponytail, the girl saw the book that she had come for on the coffee table; Elena smiled at the thought that Damon had remembered to leave it there for her. As the girl took the novel in her hand and read the title of the book -"The two brothers" – she wondered what the action centered around exactly. She should've read the novel during the summer for school, but somehow, Bonnie had always forgotten to bring the book to her. Elena couldn't blame her friend – she had been pretty messed up with everything that had happened; plus, Elena had had no desire whatsoever to do anything apart from breathing, eating, sleeping and … well, that must have been it. In a way, she was thankful that she would have a break from the thought of Caroline taking care of all the preparations in store for her birthday party – the book would be a perfect alibi to be alone for the next couple of days. As usual, Elena felt the air change and Damon's ironic voice broke the silence.

'Good mornin'…' As Elena turned around, she started speaking.

'Hey, I was going to…' Elena suddenly lost her voice and dropped the book that she had in her hands, as she turned around to a naked and foamy Damon, who standing in front of her just a few meters away. She didn't quite realize from the beginning what was happening and started looking down his body as if she honestly couldn't believe that this was actually happening. But surely enough – Damon was there, in all of his…glory, seeming not even _slightly_ embarrassed by the fact that he had appeared in front of the girl wearing Adam's clothes. As Elena took in his mankind, her eyes seemed to pop out of her orbits and she raised her eyes to meet Damon's face, looking for a kind of help whatsoever. But the moment she saw his cocky smirk plastered on his face, Elena instinctively turned around, feeling extremely embarrassed by the event that she had just taken part in. She felt her left arm unintentionally go up and a shocked 'Oh!' leaving her mouth just as she was standing completely opposite of the place where Damon now was. She couldn't believe the next words that came out of Damon's mouth.

'Hey, maybe you should learn to knock. What if I was… _indecent_?' Ten seconds passed until Elena could recover from the 'surprise.' Ten whole seconds in which she carefully thought of which cutting reply would be best to say to Damon in that moment. She finally decided to let it go, since she knew for a fact that her voice wouldn't sound anything but trembled.

'You're..._a vampire_, Damon… That's _why_ I didn't…knock.' Elena kept on going, without holding her voice back anymore. 'I thought that you were down in the basement…'

'And why would I be in the basement at _this time of day_?'

'I thought that you were having…breakfast.' The moment Elena said those words, she heard Damon giggling and felt her face get even warmer if that were even possible.

'Then I guess that we have _rats_ in the basement, 'cause it _certainly_ wasn't me down there… I was just taking a…'

'…shower. Yeah, I can _see_ that...' As Elena said those words, she felt the air change and horror invade her as she sensed Damon's body right behind her in less than a second. She saw his hand reach out holding the book that she had come after in the first place.

'Here, you dropped this. You know, you should be more careful with books, Elen especially if you borrow them from somebody else.' Elena felt her eyes roll as she took in Damon's words. She nervously took the novel out of his hand and tightly held it with both her arms at her chest.

'Don't worry, I won't keep it for too long.' The girl's body suddenly froze as she felt Damon lean in so as to whisper in her ear.

'I make you nervous, don't I?' The unmistakable irony in his voice was there, alright… Although Elena was frozen because of Damon's proximity, she also felt extremely outraged at the way that he was acting. Instead of holding a long speech and unleashing her fury on him, she simply muttered the word 'Jerk…'under her breath. She knew for a fact that he would hear it. Damon's reaction, however, she hadn't expected. The silence that fell between them for a few seconds was unnerving and Elena suddenly started thinking that she had hurt his feelings. The next second, however, proved her wrong, since the girl heard Damon laughing. She couldn't be sure, though. She would have normally looked him in the face to see his reaction, but she obviously couldn't do that right now, since he was naked.

'Okay, I got my answer… Sorry for all this – won't happen again. Well... unless you want it to.' Elena could practically see his eyebrows wiggle as he said the last words. 'Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll just go change and I'll be downstairs in a minute or so.'

'Don't come down for my sake, I'll already be gone by then.'

'Just wait for me for a little while. I'll drive you to school, since you're here. And plus, you're already late.'

'No, thanks… I don't mind if I arrive late.' In earnest, Elena panicked the moment she realized that she was really going to be late. The thought of her Maths teacher screaming at her again made her slightly wince.

'Stubborn as always… Look, I'm _coming_ with you, regardless of what you think about the matter. Elena, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. It's your choice...' Great, so it was probably going to be the hard way.

'If you're embarrassed of what just happened, I have a quick solution in mind. I could compel you and everything would be forgotten…' Elena immediately jumped at his words.

'No way – you're not coming _anywhere near me_ baring these thoughts.'

'So... you _did_ like what you saw, didn't you?' Damon's playful tone returned, making Elena once again roll her eyes.

'Damon…'

'Just remember, Elena… easy way or hard way – you know the drill. So... what will it be?' A few seconds passed until Elena answered in an exasparated and defeated tone.

'Fine... The easy way, then... Just _please_ get dressed so that I can at least watch you in the eye.' Elena felt a wide grin involuntarily form on her lips as she heard Damon beautifully laughing while he quickly made his way to his bedroom upstairs. By the time he came back, Elena had already forgiven him...


	7. Here without you

**Author's note : God, I truly can't believe that I managed to finish this chapter in just two days... I'm sorry for not updating earlier, I've been so busy with preparing for college, that I simply haven't had the time to work on my story anymore. And now I'm so excited that I managed to update right before Season 3 of the Vampire Diaries starts tonight... I just can't wait to see what the first episode will be like, and I'm sure that all of you agree with me. I've decided to follow the plot of the show, at least for the time being. But I particularly wanted to update before Ep 1 is broadcasted so as to do the entire thing my own way. Anyway, this chapter's title is inspired from the gorgeous song 'Here without you', performed by 3 Doors Down. And also, towards the end of the chapter, I have also used some lyrics from the song 'Nothing's gonna change my love for you', performed by Glenn Medeiros, so as to create the scene better. Enjoy chapter 7!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries. My story centres around the characters of the TV show that belong to their rightful owners (TV script by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec) and of Vampire Diaries series written by L.J. Smith. Also, I do not intend any infringement upon any music that might inspire chapter titles or parts of my story.**

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><p><strong>7. HERE WITHOUT YOU<strong>

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><p>Damon was sitting on the top branch of the bushiest and tallest tree present on the Mystic Falls High-school grounds. He had been hiding there for three straight hours now, and was preparing to go have some lunch. He laughed at the thought of the word 'lunch' – it sounded so human to his ears. But then again, he wasn't actually going to have a snack for himself. No – he was about to accompany Elena to the cafeteria, where she, Bonnie and Caroline would eat, gossip and laugh every day at the same hour. The vampire was bored by now of the principles that Elena's Physics teacher had been explaining to them in the past 50 minutes and couldn't wait for it to be over – he simply couldn't stand Physics, and never could have. And now that he'd been taking part in all the classes that his angel attended, Damon had started experiencing the true meaning of the word 'torture'. The first class – Mathematics – had been the worst, of course. The teacher had pinned Elena to the wall, 'cause no matter how fast Damon drove, he only got Elena to school the moment everybody had already entered the classrooms. The moment Damon heard her teacher scolding the girl like that, he swore that he was going to cut the jackass's car tires. That would be the perfect punishment for making Elena yet again sad.<p>

Anyway, Damon was relieved when he heard Ric's voice enter Elena's second class, since he knew that the guy had class, and was intelligent enough to understand what teenagers expected from a teacher. As the vampire followed Alaric's lecture about the Second World War, Damon couldn't help but admire his best friend even more than before. _'Hell, if I had had Ric in my history class 150 years ago, I would have loved going to school…'_ Instead, Damon had had a grumpy, old teacher who had made him hate history more than he hated his father back then – which had still been a surprising performance for that man. Damon's thoughts came back to the present as he heard the noisy school bell ring. In an instant, there were hundreds of teens that couldn't wait to get out of their classrooms, screaming at one another, dragging their backpacks and completely ignoring their teachers. Damon carefully concentrated on Elena and Elena only as she lost herself in the crowd of crazy teenagers who were heading out to the cafeteria.

The vampire regretted that he couldn't actually spend that time with the girl; since he hadn't registered as a student or a teacher (which would have been a more likely story), Damon had to stay outside the building day after day, since he wanted to literally keep Elena safe each and every waken moment. Damon giggled as he thought about the girl's face if she by any chance found out that he was keeping an eye on her like this. From what he knew about Elena, she would have turned red with anger in an instant. But Damon couldn't help but feel that it was the best thing for her, since she couldn't even stay safe in a public place, where she was accompanied by her two best and powerful friends – a witch and a vampire. Of course, Caroline was in the whole plan, since she had easily seen Damon sitting in the tree during their history classes. And there had been no use in denying it, especially since Damon needed all the help he could get in taking care of Elena. But, of course, bringing Barbie into this had its downfalls as well. For example, a day after she had discovered him, Alaric, Bonnie and Jeremy already knew about Damon babysitting as well. In earnest, he was grateful that they hadn't had anything against this extra precaution measure. In fact, they all seemed to look at Damon with somewhat different eyes, every time that he waited for Elena when school was over. In a way, he felt good since they could clearly understand why he did all of this.

As he heard Elena return to her table with the entire gang, Damon already knew what she would be eating – hamburger and French fries, with strawberry milkshake on the side; she had the same food at lunch day after day. But, of course, after she ate half a hamburger, she would give the rest to Jeremy - who was more than happy to help his sister- and would then proceed to the French fries, dipping the first three fries in her milkshake. The vampire couldn't help but grin as he realized how deep he had fallen for Elena – if he already knew what her eating habits were, then he was surely losing it. After that, Damon calmly listened to the girls talking about the Founder's day ball that would be taking place four weeks later. Just as Damon was about to hear Elena's answer to Caroline's insistent question 'Are you coming to the ball or not? 'Cause I have to place the orders already', a girl's soprano voice interrupted them.

'Hey, guys… I'm sorry to interrupt you. It's just that, all of the other tables are full, and I see that you have two spare seats here… Would it be okay if my brother and I joined you just this once?'

'Well, we were _actually _discussing about the Founder's Day ball, since we're the organizers…' The next thing Damon heard was Caroline quietly squeal as someone had probably given her a pretty powerful kick under the table. And of course, the next thing the vampire could hear was Elena's warm voice.

'But that's alright, we can talk about that later. You can sit with us – of course.' Damon could practically see Elena's polite smile through the brick wall.

'Thanks a lot for that… We're actually new to Mystics Falls, we've just moved here together with our parents from New York and this is our first day of school.' The girl actually seemed pretty nice.

'Oh, cool! We actually had History together, right?' Bonnie happily asked.

'Yeah… And Maths… and Physics…' Damon could only assume that it was the girl's brother that had spoken. His voice was calm and bass-like; and also a bit snobby, from what the vampire could collect. But it seemed that nobody else at the table minded, since they all started laughing.

'Then I don't think that we've met. I'm Jeremy. It's nice to meet you. And the girls are Bonnie, Caroline and my sister Elena.'

'Oh, really? What a coincidence then! My brother's name is Phillip and I'm Arianna, but everybody back in NY called me Ari. You can decide…'

'Oh, right… and lose the fun in calling you this old-fashioned name, while others turn their heads to laugh at it? No way that you're getting off the hook that easily!' Jeremy happily said. While the others started laughing, Damon could hear Phillip turn towards Elena and start talking to her in what the vampire could only classify as a 'seductive' tone.

'So, Elena… What exactly is this Founder's Ball, anyway?'

'Well, it's a charitable event which commemorates the five founding families of Mystic Fall – the Lockwoods, the Fells, Forbes, Gilberts and… the Salvatore family' Damon couldn't help but grin as he heard Elena stumble upon the last founding family. 'The ball is hosted every year by the mayor at the Lockwood mansion and there are all kind of historical artefacts exposed for everyone to see. It's a costume and tie event and you usually have to bring a plus one. '

'So I gather that it's trés elegant…'

' Óui, monsieur… Tres elegant… indeed.' Damon giggled while hearing Elena babble as she failed at saying more than three words in French. 'So, you speak French…'

'Of course we do – my sister and I actually have French origins, so it wouldn't be normal for us not to speak the language.'

'I see… Anyway, if you like to dance and are interested in history, you should definitely go – you'll most certainly have fun.'

'Are _you_ coming to the Founder's Ball?_' 'Ok, and __**now**__ we've settled the reason for Phillipé's sudden interest in the Founder's Party.' _Damon grimly noted.

'Umm, I don't think so…'

'A-ha… Because you have no 'plus-one'…?'

'No, that's not it.'

'So I gather you're boyfriend doesn't want to go at this dance…' Damon couldn't believe how pushy this guy could be.

'Not really, that's not the problem…' Elena clearly seemed uncomfortable and Damon started to clench his fists at this guy's nerve. He tried to calm himself down – this dude wasn't _physically_ hurting Elena, so he couldn't actually do something about it.

'Okay. I get it now – you don't have a boyfriend, do you?'

'No offence, Phillip, but I really don't wanna talk about it…_' _The girl's icy tone made Damon grin._ 'Good girl, give him a piece of the real Elena.'_

'Oh, my bad... I'm really sorry, Helene, I didn't want to hurt your feelings.' Phillip said in a honey-like voice; that seemed to warm up Elena a bit …and to make Damon nauseous in turn.

'It's okay… You didn't know.' _'God, Elena, sometimes you can be so naïve…' _Damon said to himself while shaking his head in disapproval.

'Look, don't get upset, 'cause I'm just saying… Whatever that guy did, it's not worth crying over it. He probably doesn't even deserve you. I mean, one look at you is enough for me to know.' At those words, Damon felt the need to go into the cafeteria and punch that French dude in the face. How _dare_ he speak about his brother like that? And how dare he hit on _his Elena_ like that? Trying to calm himself down, the vampire took hold of the nearest branch, tightly squeezing it to relieve the pressure that was rapidly growing inside of him.

'You talk as if you _know_ him – and that isn't the case.' Elena now seemed as pissed as Damon was. But Phillip didn't seem to notice – or didn't_ want_ to notice.

'You're right, I don't know him. It's just that… I've recently broken up with my girlfriend. Well, she was actually the one who _left _me for somebody else; what I'm trying to say is that I understand what it's like, no matter why or how you guys broke up.' There was a short moment of silence, before Elena responded.

'I doubt that you do.' The pain in the girl's voice was clearly there, although Elena was forcefully trying to hide it, from what Damon could gather.

'Anyway, if you consider coming to the Founder's Ball next month, I could be your partner. We don't have to go as a couple, we could go as friends.'_ 'Yeah, right, tell that to someone who believes you…' _

'And plus, you could show me the mansion, since I'm new in town and haven't seen it yet…' Damon thought that he would puke as he heard that schmuck ask Elena out to the party.

'I told you, Phillip, I don't think that I'm coming.' _'Take a hint, jackass!'_

'But if you _do _come… ' Was this guy _for real_? There was no way in hell that Elena would ever accept this.

'… I'll think about it. Thanks for the invitation, Phillip.' '_Wait…what?'_

'Avec plaisir, Helene… Mon plaisir…'

Damon couldn't help but wince as he heard Elena practically accepting this French guy's invitation. It wasn't because the vampire was particularly concerned about Elena's love for his brother, because he already knew that it was still there, burning inside of her more than ever. It was just that, ever since the Founder's Ball when Stefan had invited Katherine, Damon had wanted to have the opportunity to share such an event with the woman that he loved. And he thought that he would now have the chance to make that dream come true. Of course, the vampire realized that Elena wouldn't actually come with him to this event as his girlfriend, but she would most certainly be his date, his partner, his plus-one for the evening. Somehow, the thought of Damon having Elena as more than just 'a friend' for one night made him hopeful that one day she would realize what his feelings for her really were. In earnest, Damon hadn't even spoken with Elena about the Founder's Ball; it wasn't that he was scared that he would be rejected, but he knew how bad Elena still was and feared that pushing this on her would only make the situation worse.

As the tension continued to grow within him, Damon felt his hand squeeze the branch tighter and tighter by the second. Now he wished that he had asked Elena about the ball earlier – for she couldn't go with him anymore, as she had promised this Phillip guy. But then again, Damon knew that all was fair in love and war. He could easily persuade Elena to agree for him to be her company. But Damon was sure that Elena wouldn't go to the ball – not in her current state. But doubt started slowly eating the inside of Damon's heart and he winced as he pictured his beautiful Elena hand in hand with somebody else apart from his brother. The image was simply unnerving for him to even imagine, let alone see it with his own eyes. Eventually there was a loud crack and it took Damon a few seconds to concentrate and realize that he had managed to smash the branch that he was holding on to.

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><p>Elena had to admit - the girl in the mirror was truly beautiful. She wore a short white, baby-doll like dress and high heels of course. Her long silky hair was let loose, with only a few curls at the ends. She had no particular piece of jewelery on – just a pair of simple small earrings and a silver bracelet on her right hand. Elena simply couldn't believe that the girl watching her back from the mirror was actually her – she looked like a true star; well, that had been Caroline's doing, of course. Her face was, however, pained. No, it wasn't actually pained. It seemed more as if she was thinking hard about something, about something that had made her entire existence more complicated than ever – the two Salvatore brothers. Elena bitterly smiled as a thought ran through her head – the thought that she was the only one to blame for the way that she had acted. And now she was paying for her previous actions and mistakes. The girl turned around as she suddenly heard the door of Stefan's bedroom open and saw Caroline come in. Elena tried to smile as she saw her friend's warm expression, but failed to achieve the desired effect.<p>

'So… aren't you ready yet?' the vampire happily asked. Elena thought that her friend was a little too anxious, even for Caroline's sake, but she decided to let it go – after all, she had been paranoid all week long since she had heard the news about her birthday party.

'Almost ready, I'm still waiting for Damon to bring me my necklace.' Elena winced as she remembered what had happened just that morning during P.E. class. While they were playing basketball, Arianna had accidentally ripped the necklace from her throat while she was trying to take the ball from Elena's hand. The vervain from inside the necklace had of course spilled all over the floor of the gym. But, since no one seemed to notice, Elena didn't want to draw attention upon the matter, so she left all the vervain there and took the broken necklace with her. When school ended and Elena was heading towards the parking lot, where Damon was waiting for her as always, she felt empty inside the moment she realized that the necklace held a significant meaning – it had been the first gift that Stefan had given her. It seemed stupid enough, but it was as if the universe was telling her through the shattered necklace that their relationship was over as well. Although she was weeping because of something else, Damon thought that the girl was upset over the necklace. And, as always, he had stepped in to save the day and offered to fix the broken piece of jewelry until tonight.

'You know, we could've bought you a new necklace, since _it is_ your birthday…' Caroline said, suddenly bringing Elena into the present.

'I like my old necklace – it has sentimental value… You know that.' Elena's eyebrows furrowed as she saw Caroline's expression suddenly change.

'What is it, Caroline?'

'Elena, I really don't want to ruin your evening, but I have to ask you something.' Caroline shortly paused before staring into her friend's eyes. 'Just _please_ try to have fun tonight – we all want this for you. That's why we're doing this – we most certainly don't want to see you like this anymore…'As Elena's brows furrowed, Caroline knew what was going to come next.

'Like what, Car'?'

'You're still suffering – and I get it, Elena, believe me. You love Stefan and you're still waiting for him to come back, but what if… what if that won't happen?' Elena's eyes suddenly became upset.

'What are you actually trying to say, Caroline?' the vampire heavily sighed before continuing.

'I'm saying that… no matter how hard it is to lose somebody, you have to eventually get over it. I know you can't see that now, but… You have to admit that you're letting your life pass you by.'

'Is _that _what you all want me to do? Go on with my life?'

'No, Elena… We simply want you to be happy again. And we're trying to tell you that you should find happiness, no matter if you find it with Stefan or… with _somebody else_…' The last words made Elena freeze in her place. For a second she thought that Caroline was referring to…_ Damon_. But, no – that simply couldn't be! Her voice, however, came out a tad more bitter than she had intended.

'_I already_ found my happiness, Car' and it's with Stefan – It will _always_ be with Stefan… And if you guys have a problem with that, then I'm sorry to disappoint you, but that's just how things are. And that's the way they're going to stay…' After Caroline nodded in response, she silently headed towards the door, appearing to be defeated. Elena felt guilty for the way that she had handled her friend, so she quickly turned around one more time to her friend and warmly said.

'I'm sorry, Caroline – I promise you that I'll enjoy myself tonight. And thank you for throwing this party for me, Car'… I know you probably put a lot of effort into it.' Those words made the vampire widely grin and she seemed to have forgotten all about the icy discussion from earlier.

'You can thank me _after_ the party…' With a wink, Caroline quickly walked out the door, letting Elena once again alone in her boyfriend's empty bedroom.

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><p>As Damon found himself standing right in front of Stefan's bedroom door, he came to a halt, hesitating before actually going inside. He was tightly holding on to Elena's necklace, which had a fresh set of vervain inside, as if he was holding on to the last piece of salvation that he had. The truth was that Damon was anxious about this moment – he hadn't been allowed to see Elena all afternoon, although she had arrived at the boarding house a good three hours earlier to get ready for the party. The girl had been, of course, accompanied by Caroline, who was making sure that Elena wouldn't peek downstairs, where the vampire was decorating everything for the big night. Of course, Elena had no idea that her birthday party wouldn't take place only between her close friends – if that were the case, she would have probably called the whole thing off. Damon smiled at the thought – he could only imagine Elena's reaction, the moment she would eventually go downstairs in the living-room. He could easily remember Elena's defeated face as she agreed to please anyone else but herself remaining in Stefan's bedroom this entire time.<p>

So Damon hadn't actually had any contact with the girl since he had picked her up from school earlier that day. He would have never believed that he could be _so linked_ to a human being, that it would actually hurt to be apart from her for only a few hours. The feeling was indeed spreading inside his heart, making it hard for Damon not to burst into the room and simply spill out his feelings to Elena. But, of course, he couldn't do that. Firstly because it was the girl's birthday and it was clearly not the best timing. And secondly, well… there was always his brother. The moment Stefan's face appeared in front of his eyes, Damon forcefully shook his head and clenched his fists. _'Just gather yourself, man!'_ When he eventually entered the room, Damon found Elena standing in front of the mirror, with her back towards the door.

Damon felt his entire body go on fire at the sight of Elena – he just couldn't find words to describe what she looked like, for she was as beautiful as only an angel could be. In earnest, he had expected to see Elena happy at the sight of him holding her necklace, but she seemed to have completely forgotten about the whole thing. Damon was also disappointed to see a pained expression on the girl's face the moment she saw his reflection in the mirror. Strangely enough, Elena didn't even try to hide it from him. That made Damon even more uncomfortable, since he didn't even know what to say to her. Elena was the one who eventually broke the silence.

'Hey…' Her voice sounded all wrong, although Damon couldn't put his finger on it. And then it was Damon's turn to return the greeting.

'Hey to you too, birthday girl…' As Elena saw Damon's playful smile, her expression warmed up the slightest bit, fact which didn't pass unnoticed by the vampire.

'I don't even feel like it's my own birthday. It all seems so strange.' Elena said while shaking her head in disbelief.

'Yeah, I think I know what you mean – you're officially _old_ now. No more wild parties, no more drinking, no more sexy guys – hey, you might as well be 40, huh?' At that phrase, Elena actually cracked a wide grin while shaking her head. Happy to have made her happy, Damon continued.

'_However_, I think that this is a _very good occasion_ for us to finally have some fun and forget about everything that's been going on.'

'I guess you're right…'

'Now will the birthday girl tell me why she isn't enjoying this day?' Elena's eyes suddenly went wide open and flickered towards Damon as she realized how upset she really looked. She hadn't wanted to let anyone see – especially Damon, but it seemed that she couldn't act as well as she thought. Not knowing what to tell Damon, she simply shook her head, as if saying _'I don't wanna talk about it now._' The girl flinched as she heard Damon speak in a dramatic voice.

'Oh, _noooo!_ Don't tell me that you've been looking at photos from the 80's with Stefan's band…' The next thing Elena saw was Damon taking a look at Stefan's album. The girl heard her voice come out confused.

'They were a… band?'

'Oh, of course… a rock band. Stefan was very popular back then. But I don't know too many details, since we still weren't talking back then. But from what I saw the first and only time when I met my brother's band, they were all dressed like Bon Jovi, had weird long curly hair, and pretended that they were cool and breaking a leg. God, _did I hate_ the 80's… the 90's were indeed worse, but still…' Elena couldn't help but smile as she saw Damon throw Stefan's album back on the bed and shaking his head in disgust.

'Now… the reason why I came here in the first place…' Damon said in a mystery-like voice, while slowly coming towards the girl with her necklace hidden in the palm of his hands. When the vampire saw that Elena still couldn't remember, he closed the distance between them and told her to close her eyes and turn around towards the mirror. Although Elena thought it to be a very bad idea, she complied, since she didn't want to spoil the evening. As she closed her eyes, the girl felt Damon's hands gently bringing her hair to her back and then a piece of cold metal being placed at the base of her neck. Of course! Her necklace! The moment she fluttered her eyes open, Elena sincerely wondered how she had forgetten about her necklace. She met Damon's excited eyes and she couldn't help but feel the electricity between them powerfully coming to life. The girl felt her breathing accelerating and prayed that Damon wouldn't notice it. But the vampire didn't say a word about it. Instead, as he finished locking her necklace, Damon couldn't help but let his eyes roam all over Elena's body, from her toes, then all the way up to her beautiful big brown eyes. Although it hadn't taken him more than two seconds to do that, Damon felt Elena's pulse accelerating as she had caught him admiring her. But the last thing she wanted was for Damon to say something about that, so she quickly started in a grateful voice.

'Thank you for mending my necklace, Damon…' In response, the vampire shot her such an adoring look that Elena felt like she was staring into her boyfriend's eyes. They remained like this for a few seconds, before Elena saw Damon slowly leaning towards her. The moment his mouth arrived close to her right ear, Elena shuddered as she heard Damon's velvet voice gently whispering.

'I'm sorry I haven't told you this earlier… You're so beautiful tonight, Elena…' The girl thought that her heart was going to explode as Damon's words sank in. She couldn't remember if she had ever heard those words coming out of his mouth when he had spoken to her. But it didn't matter, 'cause Elena found herself wanting to hear Damon say those words over and over again, until she forgot who she was. But, before she could realize that this wasn't a dream, the vampire retreated, throwing Elena another smile before he silently turned around and went towards the door. The moment Elena remained alone in the room, she involuntarily looked at her reflection in the mirror; she wasn't surprised at all to see that her cheeks were flushed and her chest was involuntarily going up and down in short, heavy breaths...

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><p>A few moments after Damon had left Stefan's bedroom, Elena followed him and, so, she and the vampire were both standing in his personal study, preparing to go down the stairs, so that Elena could see all the effort that Caroline had put up for this occasion. Everything was peachy and fine, until Elena asked Damon for the millionth time in that day whether he had heard any news from Bonnie and Jeremy i.e. if they had found Lucy already – the only witch that could help Bonnie find Stefan's whereabouts. Damon had grown tired of the same question over and over again in the last couple of days since they had left, and he also had other unsolved and urgent problems to think about, so he simply snapped at her – but not in his usual way. The vampire simply turned around to his desk so as not to look Elena in the eyes. While he was fervently looking for some papers he started in a harsh voice.<p>

'No, Elena, for the thousandth time today – no, they haven't found Lucy yet.' His words had brought Elena to silence mode. As she started speaking, her voice sounded frail and hesitant.

'You're upset…' For an unknown reason, that had made Damon even more annoyed and his tone was clearly ironic when he responded.

'No, I'm not upset. Not at all... Why _should_ I be?'

'Damon… Come on, what's wrong?'

'I'm simply _disappointed in you_…' That seemed to catch Elena off guard, and she found herself stuttering in a shocked voice.

'Disappointed?' The girl felt as if she had received a slap on the face.

'Yes, disappointed – because you know the truth even better than I do.' At the sight of Elena's questioning eyes, Damon simply turned around again to the desk before he responded.

'The truth about my brother… Stefan's feeding again – and this time he _really is_ out of control, Elena.' There was a short pause, before the vampire heard the girl answer.

'I don't understand… Why are you telling me this now, Damon?'

'Because you _need_ to hear it from somebody…' Damon had hesitated since he knew that his words would hurt the girl, but he simply knew that he had no choice, if he was going to protect her.

'Stefan's gone, Elena, and he's _not _going to come back.' Taken aback by Damon's convinced tone, the girl felt in turn disappointed to hear her best friend speak like that. She needed a few seconds before she could recollect herself and started talking in a confident tone.

'I'm not going to give up on finding Stefan…' the girl shortly paused while taking a deep breath '…no matter how much _you all_ want me to.'

Damon felt the need to turn around and apologize for his harsh words. But the moment the thought formed in his mind, he heard Elena already storm out of the room, without saying another word. Damon also thought of running after her and stopping the girl in her tracks, but he finally decided to let it go. The moment he heard Elena's heels loudly go down the stairs, he realized how furious he had really made her. His heart winced at the thought, and at the same instant he felt his legs hastily run towards the stairs. But he was too late – the moment Damon arrived at the top of the stairs, he only saw a piece of Elena's dress go round the corner as the crowd of hidden guests suddenly jumped and shouted 'SURPRISE!'.

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><p>After she finished greeting everybody that had come to the party and had received all of her gifts, Elena felt truly exhausted. In fact, exhausted didn't even begin to cover the state that she was in. The talk that she had had with Damon a few minutes before had completely demoralized her. She simply couldn't understand what had all of a sudden happened to Damon. The girl not only felt that he had been completely unfair to her, especially since today was her birthday, but she also found it strange that he had said all of those things to her as if he had wanted her to believe that Stefan wouldn't be coming back after all. And she couldn't comprehend why – as much as she wanted to figure this one out, Elena simply didn't have a logical answer. But then again, Damon would always do irrational things, so she shouldn't start worrying about it now. In the end, he didn't deserve for her to be thinking about his actions, given the way that he had acted.<p>

Elena felt herself come back to reality the moment she saw the door of the boarding house open and Arianna and Phillip come in holding a bouquet of flowers and a gift. Elena couldn't believe that Caroline had invited a couple of strangers. In earnest, the twins (for Arianna and Phillip were both green-eyed, brown haired twins) and their group had bonded these few days at school during lunch, Elena simply couldn't imagine why Caroline would tell them to come as well. Sure, Arianna was a pleasant and kind girl to be around and Phillip, although snoby, was a funny guy, but Elena felt like she had almost nothing in common with them. It was official – if she had doubted it before, now she was sure of her feelings towards the whole idea of the birthday party – it was a complete and utter disaster. She had been of course surprised and upset the moment she saw about fifty people jump from behind every single piece of furniture in the boarding house and shout 'Surprise!' – 'cause she had specifically asked Caroline that this party be only between close friends. But now she was completely disappointed to see that her party was everything that she hadn't wanted: there were more than ten people invited, the living-room was full of gifts and flowers, crazy, loud music was playing and of course – there was also a big cake which had _her picture_ on it. _'Great… I'm going to kill Caroline after the party…'_ Elena, however, tried to compose herself and put on the best smile on her face the moment Arianna tightly hugged her. After the usual 'Happy birthday!', Elena received the red roses from Phillip, who leaned down to give her a long and inappropriate kiss on the cheek. After Arianna and her brother went inside the living-room, where the party had already begun, Elena took one look at the room full of people and sighed from the bottom of her heart. This was going to be a very long night…

Damon was suddenly pulled out of his reverie as he received a light punch from Alaric in his left arm. They had been sitting on the balustrade of the living-room's balcony, with their usual glasses of scotch in their hands, watching the party from outside. Damon directed his eyes towards Alaric's face and mumbled in an airy tone.

'What?'

'You're doing it again, Damon…' the vampire's brows furrowed in confusion.

'Doing what?' Alaric cracked a smile since he couldn't believe that Damon hadn't understood what he was talking about.

'Elena…' he simply stated.

'Yes, Elena… what about her?' Ric actually felt his lips turn into a wide grin as he was watching his friend be so above-ground tonight.

'You're _staring_ at her again…' At these words, Alaric saw Damon's expression change and his mask suddenly appeared on his face. He quickly composed himself and pretended to be amused.

'You should get your eyes examined, Ric… They're starting to get old, buddy.'

'And they're not the only thing that's starting to grow old around here.' Damon turned to Alaric, having a distressed look on his face.

'What are you even talking about?'

'Come on, Damon… I thought that we were passed all the hiding and lying.'

'I _honestly_ don't know what you're talking about.' Damon nonchalantly said as he took a sip of his scotch.

'That's_ crap _and you know it… Everybody around you knows, Damon.' The vampire remained still as he heard Alaric continue. 'We can all see the way the both of you are looking at each other all the time. And, quite frankly, it's starting to be unnerving to watch – why don't you simply tell her how you feel and get it over with?' Alaric saw Damon angrily sip a bit of scotch before he turned to face Ric; his eyes were cracked.

'Because, the last time I checked, Elena and Stefan were_ still_ together and in love; and I also had _a brother_ who was enslaved because he sacrificed himself to save my ass. And, guess what, Ric? Stefan _is_ my brother. And I know that you're a History teacher, but you can easily understand how 2 plus 2 equals 4, so… I'll let you do the math… So if you have a God-damned solution for all of this mess, then I'm open to suggestions, 'cause I have no idea how I should deal with all this... Get it now, Ric?' The pitiful look that Alaric shot Damon made him turn his head in the opposite direction and take another sip of his drink. After a few moments of silence, Damon heard the sweetest voice on Earth and when he turned his head, his beautiful Elena was there, alright, in front of him and Ric. Damon made a mental note to stop thinking about the girl as 'his'. Strangely enough, she looked quite alright considering what had happened earlier between them. But Damon couldn't help but observe that Elena wasn't even looking at him, and she addressed Alaric instead.

'Hey, Elena! I guess that I'm allowed to tell you 'Happy birthday' again, right?' Damon grinned as he saw Elena make a face and then quickly trying to hide it.

'Yeah, I don't see why you shouldn't do that. I mean, I already heard that line _a hundred times_ tonight… But, that's the point of the whole party, isn't it?' Damon heard Ric answer in a sympathetic tone.

'I think it's safe to say that you're not enjoying the party, are you?' the girl was fidgeting, clearly trying to keep back the words, but completely failed at doing so.

'Oh, no… What is there that I shouldn't enjoy? It's _all I ever wanted_…' As Elena couldn't help but roll her eyes, Alaric started laughing.

'But still… It's nice of you to pretend for Caroline's sake…' Damon saw from the corner of his eye as Elena sighed before she went on in the sad voice that always broke his heart.

'Yeah… I guess that, as long as everyone thinks that I'm having a good time, that's enough for me… Well, anyway, I'm going to spend some time with the other guests as well. I hope you have fun, Ric!'

'Yeah, you have fun as well, Elena… See you later!' At those words, Elena turned around to head for the living-room after throwing a single glance towards Damon. The vampire felt something inside of him break as he took a glimpse of the cold expression plastered on Elena's face. He hated himself for what he had said to her… But he knew that she would thank him for this later.

'What was _that_?' Ric asked in a shocked voice.

'What was what?' Damon nonchalantly asked.

'Okay... I don't know what's going on between the two of you, but I still think that you should talk to her…' Alaric saw the vampire put his glass down on the balustrade and angrily replied.

'What part of 'my brother is Elena's boyfriend' didn't you get, Ric?' the History teacher looked Damon in the face for a brief second, before his expression hardened.

'Chicken…'

'Excuse me?' Damon's eyes seemed like they were about to pop out of their orbits.

'You heard what I just said. You're scared, aren't you? You're scared that she doesn't feel the same…' From the look on Damon's face, Ric knew that he had hit a sore spot.

'You're being absurd...' the vampire sniffed at Ric's words.

'Maybe I am… but I still think that you should talk to her… Keeping things hidden never helps anyone.' Damon had to admit that he had a point, but, somehow, he knew that it didn't apply to his situation as well.

'Look, Ric, I appreciate your concern, man, but …. You honestly have _no idea_ what it's like…' Alaric seemed to ponder upon his words, before he friendly told him.

'You're right, Damon – I don't. But you'll never find out what she really feels if you don't confront her about it. And you'll most probably regret it your entire life if you don't…' After saying those words, Alaric patted Damon on the back and entered the living-room, taking his glass as well. Right in that moment, an old song from the 80's started loudly playing – a song which probably meant nothing to all the people inside. But that was a song that made Damon drop his glass to the floor in surprise that it remembered him of Elena…

'_If I had to live my life without you near me / __The days would all be empty / The nights would seem so long…'_

In earnest, Damon had never been a romantic. He had never been the kind of person who gazed into the sky at night, counting the stars and wondering whether she loved him or she loved him not… But on this particular evening, the moment he directed his eyes to the night's sky, all he could see was Elena's angelic face, warmly smiling back at him. As he turned around to the living-room, Damon could easily lay his eyes on his angel in spite of all the agitation that was around her.

'_With you I see forever oh so clearly / I might have been in love before / But it never felt this strong'  
><em>

It suddenly dawned upon Damon that every verse in this song was completely and utterly true – he may not have known a lot of things. He definitely had no idea how he could stay faithful to Stefan, since he loved his girlfriend. He didn't know if Elena had the exact same feelings as him. And Damon also didn't know if what he was about to do was the right thing. But he simply couldn't take it any longer – he felt his blood rushing in his veins, making it impossible for him to stop. And before he knew it, he jumped off the balustrade and headed towards the living-room in a confident and impatient pace.

'_Our dreams are young and we both know/ They'll take us where we want to go'  
><em>

As he made his way through the crowd of people, he knew – he finally understood what he had always known deep down.

_'Hold me now, touch me now /I don't want to live without you'  
><em>

He couldn't see Elena anymore, but he finally felt the need to hold her, to touch her, to show her and tell her how much he really loved her. Ric had been right – he was scared, hell – he was petrified. But now he wasn't scared anymore...

'_Nothing's gonna change my love for you / You ought to know by now how much I love you'  
><em>

His lips involuntarily went upwards in a wide grin as he felt that he was getting closer to his angel by the second. Damon's heart almost started beating the moment he saw his dear Elena. And a fraction of a second later it almost broke into thousand of tiny pieces.

_'One thing you can be sure of / I'll never ask for more than your love'  
><em>  
>A wave of disappointment came crushing down upon him as he saw his beautiful Elena in Phillip's arms, the both of them closely dancing and smiling to one another. Damon felt his entire body refusing to react to his strong desire of hiding his emotions. The entire world suddenly went silent the moment Elena's chocolate eyes met his…<p>

A second later, Damon was already long gone...

* * *

><p>All of the nerves in his body were convulsively trembling, screaming at him to go back and finish what he had intended to do. But he couldn't... Damon had felt that he could have easily yanked that jackass off of Elena and crush his skull so hard that the only thing left of it would be a pile of ashes. He nervously ran faster and faster, not even caring whether someone saw him anymore. He simply needed to be alone, and as far away from Elena as possible – the last thing he needed was to snap. No, that wasn't going to happen - for he had something else more important to do tonight and it couldn't wait any longer.<p>

A few moments later, Damon found himself at the old barrack that was situated at the very edge of the Boarding House's grounds. He hastily, but silently went inside and took out a dozen of fresh blood bags out of the fridge. Before he threw them all over the room, the vampire opened a couple of them and especially left them that way on the ground. He then quickly went out of the room, making sure that he wouldn't completely close the door on his way out. Afterwards, Damon silently found a good place to hide i.e. the highest tree a few meters away from the barrack and started to wait. Involuntarily, his thoughts flew back to Elena's face the moment she had made eye-contact with her. It had lasted only a second, and he was sure that she hadn't probably even noticed him, but Damon had seen every emotion on her face and realized that she was happy. He couldn't understand though why. That Phillip guy was a first-class prick. No matter how hard Damon tried to beat his brains about the matter, he couldn't find any logical answer. But, then again... not every thing that Elena did was rational.

After a few minutes or maybe a few hours, the vampire heard somebody loudly barging in the barrack and slamming the door to the inside wall and then there was a sucking noise coming from inside. That was when Damon grinned mischievously as he thought to himself '_Gotcha_…' He rushed to the inside of the barrack and there he was – his brother, Stefan, who was sitting on his knees on the floor and hungrily drinking the content of a blood-bag. Damon had been imagining this moment for months now. But, although he had expected this, he still couldn't believe how much of a vampire did Stefan look like in that moment. It felt as if he wasn't even his brother anymore. But it hadn't been the first time that Damon had seen Stefan in this state. It was, however, the first time that he couldn't hide his disappointment and disgust. He saw his brother jump as he started in an ironic voice.

'Long time no see, brother…' In less than a second, Stefan threw the blood-bag, jumped to his feet and felt the need to wipe his chin, that was full of blood, as if he was ashamed of himself. He seemed completely caught off-guard and his eyes were filled with confusions and questions.

'Aren't you happy to see me?' Stefan's eyes turned fierce.

'Oh, of course I am…_brother_.' But Damon observed that his tone didn't match his eyes. He was furious for being caught like this.

'It doesn't seem so… Well, I know that we've never been the closest brothers in the world, but still… a letter would've been enough to ease the pain of missing you.'

'I didn't have time for letters…' Stefan said in a snobby voice.

'A-ha… and what exactly did you have time for in the last four months?'

'That's none of your business.'

'I see – you've been a busy man; busy even to find the necessary time to at least call Elena and tell her that you were still alive.' Stefan suddenly turned around to face Damon with the most pained eyes that the vampire had seen his brother have. When he answered, he clearly seemed to have lost the control that he had been faking.

'The reason I am in this mess is _because of you!'_

'I never asked you to do this for me – it was your choice and your choice only. But, nevertheless, you saved my life, Stefan… And, in turn, I beg you to please let me help you come back to your normal self.' Damon's voice was now hopeful and pleading.

'This _is_ my normal self…' Stefan stubbornly replied, holding a smirk on his face.

'Is it really? 'Cause the normal 'you' wouldn't have left Elena stranded for four whole months, crying day and night and having nightmares because she had no idea whether you were even breathing, let alone if you were ever going to come back.' By the look on Stefan's face, Damon knew that he was rubbing the knife even deeper in the wound.

'And why does that even concern you?' Damon couldn't believe his ears.

'Can you hear yourself right now? This is _Elena_ we're talking about – the sweet, caring girl that loves you and wants you back in spite of the state that you are now in. Does that ring a bell? If not, then I'll tell you who she now is – a broken human being, who has suffered more than she ever deserved to in this life…. And part of that is because of you. If you had only seen her in these last months….'

'Oh, I'm sure that you took _very good care_ of her all of this time…' Stefan replied in a resentful tone.

'Contrary to your beliefs, brother, I didn't lay one single hand on her… And not because I couldn't have, but because I know that she still loves you.'

'She loves me; she loves me… You keep saying that_ – why?'_

' 'Cause she wants you _back_, Stefan… And she _deserves_ to have you back. And you deserve to have the chance to get your old life back… Just please let me help you.' Although Damon would have never admited, he had started begging.

'I don't want my old life back… And I don't need _your help_.' Stefan angrily told Damon.

'You definitely_ seem_ as if you need it…'

_'Screw… you_…' As Stefan spat those words to Damon, he headed towards the door, but was stopped by Damon's warning.

'I wouldn't do that if I were you; I give you my word that you won't live to see the sun rise again.' A few seconds passed, and Damon realized that Stefan had smelled the vervain that he had placed above the barrack earlier that day. The trick was that anyone who opened the door would trigger a mechanism that would in turn make the vervain fall from the attic upstairs. As Damon saw Stefan's fists nervously clench, he happily said.

'And, by the way… you're trapped in here with me. I knew you couldn't wait, so I thought that we could spend some quality time together… like brothers do.' The next thing Damon knew was that Stefan had pinned him to a wooden pier, having his fist clenched around his neck. His eyes turned a bit black as he spat to Damon.

_'Let…me…go_…' With an effort, Damon responded.

'You're a little over the edge, brother…' The next thing he knew was that Stefan had punched him so hard that the pillar had almost broken down underneath his strength. In earnest, Damon had expected Stefan to be powerful, but not this strong. Before he could bring himself up from the floor, Damon felt himself being picked up by Stefan and brutally thrown to the other side of the room.

'Now who's the one trapped, Damon?' Stefan said while approaching his brother with a few wooden stakes in his right hand…

'How's it like to be the weaker brother?' Before Damon could even respond or move, he felt his left leg in pain as Stefan had driven the first stake into it. Damon involuntarily winced, but tried to compose himself as he didn't want to give Stefan the satisfaction of seeing him hurt.

'I'm sorry, what did you say, brother? That you're sorry for talking to me like that?'

'Stefan… what the hell… is wrong with you?' At those words, Damon received another stake in his other leg instead. He gritted his teeth so as not to scream.

'I'm just giving you a lesson, Damon… Let's just hope you live to learn something from it…' With that, Stefan inserted another stake, but this time in his brother's left arm. This time Damon couldn't help but scream. He was now grateful that he hadn't chosen a place closer to the Boarding house for all of this. He prayed that no one would hear and come here looking for him, for they surely wouldn't survive. It was enough that he was going to… But, no – Stefan wasn't so diabolical that he would actually kill him; but seeing his brother like this made Damon think twice about the matter and the word 'Ripper' involuntarily came to his mind.

'Stefan… stop it now – you've had you're fun…' His voice sounded fragile and pained, even to his own ears.

'Oh, no, not yet… I'll be happy to sit here and watch you bleed to death…' Another stake in his stomach and Damon truly couldn't feel his body anymore – every piece of his skin hurt like hell. He couldn't even scream anywhere – he felt numb.

'I can only imagine what that feels like… Ouch – it stings, doesn't it?' Stefan's voice sounded truly devilish to Damon's ears.

'Brother, please…' an injured Damon managed to mumble.

'Fine… I _will_ let you go if you correctly answer this one small question.' Stefan bent on his knees, trying to come closer to Damon's face as he asked him. 'Who do you prefer to die – you… or… _Elena_?' As Damon's eyes fluttered open, Stefan widely grinned, already seeing the answer in his eyes. But at the same time, he started shaking his head and staring intently into Damon's eyes.

'Wrong answer, Damon… But, alas, since you're still in love with _my girlfriend_, you give me no other choice. Goodbye, brother… I hope we don't see each other too soon.' With those words, Damon felt yet another horrible pain go through his weak body as the flesh in the middle of his chest was ripped apart by the last wooden stake. He realized that Stefan hadn't inserted the stake in his heart, but it didn't matter anymore, ' cause he wasn't going to live too much. Everything then started to move in slow motion, as if he was watching a bad movie. He could see his brother pick up all the blood bags from the floor and nonchalantly drink them one by one. And then, after a few - minutes? - he couldn't see Stefan anymore and assumed that he had simply left. In earnest, Damon couldn't believe that this was happening to him - that he would die because of... his brother! The only thing that Damon could still think about was his dear Elena. He wanted to tell her how sorry he was for hurting her earlier, to let her know how much he truly loved her and to help her remember the very first time that he had told her those three words... The thing that hurt him most was that he didn't have her near him this time as well - he would have truly liked it for somebody to hold his hand while he died. He had cheated death once and it seemed that he wouldn't be given a second chance after all. His heart winced at the thought that Elena would remain all alone; she did have her brother and their friends, but Damon felt guilty that he wouldn't be there for her anymore, that he wouldn't be able to protect her anymore. He felt a lonely tear fall down his cheek as Elena's face appeared in front of his eyes. But he didn't get his hopes up - although he feared it, he knew what would soon happen to him.

The moment Damon heard Elena's sweet angelic voice, he knew for sure that he had died and arrived in heaven...

* * *

><p><strong>I hope that I don't disappoint anyone with this chapter, since I wrote it in high speed, and didn't really have the time to trim it properly... Please excuse the spelling mistakes, if they are there... Anyways, I can't wait to see what you guys think about it ! Until next time... :-)<strong>


	8. Behind blue eyes

**Author's note: First of all, I would like to apologize to all my readers who have had to wait for almost a month for a new chapter in my story. I've been extremely busy with university, I can't even say how many things I've had to solve, and, well, you guys know what it's like. I basically promised myself daily that I would write, but that's not how things work when you don't have enough time. Well, I should have been studying tonight, but instead I wrote for five hours in a row like a mad man - I've never done this before, so I hope that this chapter won't be disappointitng in any way. To be honest, I've decided to stick to some parts of the actual plot in the TV show, but I'll try to change them and combine them as much as I can. I apologize for grammar/spelling mistakes, it's 1 a.m. and I'm absolutely exhausted. Anyway, I'm loving the TV show, hope you guys are too! This chapter's title is inspired from Limp Bizkit's beautiful sad song 'Behind blue eyes'. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries. My story centres around the characters of the TV show that belong to their rightful owners (TV script by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec) and of Vampire Diaries series written by L.J. Smith. I do not intend any infringement upon any music that might inspire chapter titles or parts of my story.**

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><p><strong>8. BEHIND BLUE EYES<strong>

* * *

><p>Elena had been walking for hours. Or so she felt… By the time that Damon had left the Boarding house, the girl had been prepared to go right after him. But, instead, all the lights in the house had been switched off, and Caroline, together with Tyler, had brought the cake to the birthday girl, making it impossible for her to leave. After everybody had sung 'Happy birthday!' to her, came the moment when Elena had to make a wish. As she found herself face to face with the candles, she couldn't possibly think of what she wanted most. Deep down inside, she would have loved for a million things to be different. She wanted to know if Stefan was alive and alright; she wanted for Jeremy to stop being terrified by Vicki and Anna; she wanted for Klaus to simply disappear and let Stefan come back to her. She could have made any of these wishes. But, instead, the only image that popped in Elena's mind was Damon's face; and, so, the girl found herself wishing that she could be where Damon was.<p>

Now, Elena couldn't understand what had really determined her to make that wish. Was it because Damon had stormed out so fast when he had seen her dancing with Phillip? Was it because her best friend wasn't there when she had blown out the candles? Or perhaps it had been something more…? Elena closed her eyes as she remembered the pained look on Damon's face. The moment Elena had seen Damon's eyes while she was dancing with Phillip, she felt that something inside of her had been torn to pieces. And not because Damon clearly didn't like her being next to Phillip; and it wasn't because she felt guilty for forgetting about Stefan for just a while. No, it went beyond that. Elena felt as if she had betrayed Damon… Of course, that was simply crazy. Firstly, because Damon wasn't her boyfriend – not even close… Secondly, because Elena was simply faking being happy with that pain-in-the-ass Phillip, since she had wanted to make everyone believe that she was having fun.

But now she was done pretending. Elena had waited for Damon to come back, but after half an hour she decided that she had had enough - she couldn't wait anymore. So she had checked all of the rooms in the house before she realized that Damon wouldn't go anywhere where he could be found. Elena had found herself in a dilemma, not knowing who to ask where Damon was. But after a few seconds she suddenly remembered a place which Stefan had shown her one sunny day when they wanted to be all by themselves. Of course! The old barrack in the forest… Just as she was about to step out the door, she suddenly realized that Damon would be angry with her for walking all alone in the woods at night and found herself blushing at the thought. As tempting as it sounded, she knew better than to make Damon angry. She turned around to look after Caroline, but was surprised to see that the vampire was nowhere to be found; and neither was Tyler. That really was strange… Alaric had left right after the cake, for he was tired after a day of work. Jeremy and Bonnie were gone looking for Lucy, so that had left Elena all alone in her pursuit to find Damon. Elena just hoped that he wouldn't be too mad.

A second later, Elena was brutally pulled out of her reverie as a sharp scream cut through the night's deathly silence. The girl felt goose bumps go down her spine as she heard yet another scream a few seconds later. Elena's blood suddenly froze in her veins. Her head started swirling and she sprang, running faster than ever. She didn't want to think about that voice – it sounded so familiar to her ears, that the girl didn't even want to grasp the possibility that was quickly forming in her head. After a few seconds which felt like hours, Elena came to a halt as she suddenly saw light coming from one of the windows in the barrack. While she was adjusting to the light, the girl saw a figure quickly creeping out of the barrack through the same window. Elena's body froze into place as she realized that it wasn't Damon; and it also wasn't a person; at least… not a human-being. The moment It turned around towards Elena, the girl couldn't help but catch her breath as she couldn't see at all who it was; the person seemed to hesitate, staring at Elena, from what the girl could figure out. A penetrating sense of fear shot through her body as she saw that this thing hesitantly coming towards her. Elena started going backwards, but suddenly tripped and loudly crashed on the forest ground. Before she could get up, the thing shot out in the opposite direction and vanished, leaving her all alone. '_What the hell was that! And what was it doing here?'_ Elena thought.

It took the girl a total of two seconds to make the connection between the scream from earlier and this creature. Elena had no idea how she got up, or how long it took for her to reach the barrack's door. She didn't have time to wonder why that thing hadn't gone out the door, so she was surprised when she heard a trap open and a bunch of vervain coming down upon her like rain. After she managed to take the vervain out of her way, Elena felt the entire world crashing down upon her as she saw the image lying in front of her eyes….

Never in her entire life had Elena felt so terrified; she literally felt her mind shut off and her heart climbing in her neck as she saw Damon unconsciously lying on the floor of the barrack. Terror invaded her as she helplessly raked her eyes over his body and the girl felt tears gathering in her eyes as she took in each and every one of his wounds. Her entire body winced from the inside as she realized how frail and weak Damon appeared to be. Elena observed that almost every part of his clothes was soaked in fresh blood. And then, the realization that he was literally bleeding to death made Elena lose it for a second. _No! No, he's not dead. He can't be dead!_ In an instant Elena found herself on her knees next to Damon, cupping his face in her hands. She heard herself talk – better yet, plead – in an urgent tone.

'Damon... Damon, can you hear me? Damon, please open your eyes if you can hear me!' By then Elena felt rivers of salty tears flowing down her cheeks and blurring her eyesight. The girl started crying even more as she didn't receive any signal whatsoever from Damon.

The following thought that came into her head made her brutally wake up. The next thing she knew, Elena was hastily drawing out each and every one of the wooden stakes that inhabited Damon's body, acting as fast as she could. From her past knowledge with vampires and their healing mechanism, she knew for sure that he should start healing. But there was no reaction from Damon and Elena started cursing herself for not removing the stakes earlier. She experienced another shudder as she saw Damon's body powerfully go up in a convulsion. The moment Damon's eyes opened just a little bit, Elena found herself bending over him and lovingly caressing his face. Her voice sounded trembled as she spoke.

'D…a…mon… Damon, you have to open your eyes and look at me!'

'Elena…' the girl felt her heart wince as she took in his fragile voice. Never in her life had she seen him so weak and it didn't only pain her, but it scared her to death.

'Myy…an..gel…' the vampire murmured. Elena felt her eyebrows furrowing and a small smile forming on her face, but before she could say anything she heard Damon continue.

'So…this…is..what…heaven…is…really…like…' The girl felt tears of desperation flooding her eyesight as she gently and yet urgently spoke.

'No, Damon…no! Don't you dare give up! You're not going to die! You can't die, Damon – you just can't…' After she said those words, the girl could see the vampire's eyes open a bit wider and his lips moving. There was a look on his face that Elena hadn't seen until that very moment – an excruciating defeat. He was giving up and she didn't know what to do so as to change his mind. The girl felt her whole body go on fire as Damon said the following words.

'I…love…you… Elena…' The way that he stared into her eyes – it was simply maddening to watch, for there were so many unspoken emotions there. But , strangely enough, Elena couldn't direct her gaze away from his eyes and she found herself sadly smiling to Damon. Just as he smiled back to her, Elena finally realized what she had to do to save him. She left Damon's side only for a few seconds and came back holding a garden scissors in her hand. Elena had wanted to bring Damon a blood-bag, but the ones that she had found were all empty and lying on the floor. She turned her gaze towards her suffering Damon and the words came out trembled, but in a confident tone.

'If you truly love me, Damon, then I beg you to fight!' There was a flame in the vampire's eyes that told Elena he would protest; before he could do that, she took the scissors and brutally cut the flesh from her wrist. The moment she did that, blood started to spring from the wound and she immediately directed her hand to Damon's mouth, praying that he would drink from her. Elena could see the vampire's eyes going wide open as he realized what she was doing; and, then, the girl cringed as she saw Damon fighting his urge to drink from her. She was shocked to see him turn his head from her hand, as if her blood disgusted him to the fullest.

'I… can't… hurt you, Elena…' His words sent Elena shedding fresh new tears and she found herself more confident than she had ever been in her life. The girl urgently turned Damon's face to hers and started to speak while staring into his eyes.

'You _won't _hurt me…. _I trust you_, Damon!' Elena would have wanted to forever remain in that moment – the feelings that Damon's eyes expressed couldn't be explained or judged or even understood. But she felt his love burning deep inside of her and would have wanted to tell him every little thing that she had hidden from him more than anything in the world. Instead, the girl simply locked her now bloody wrist to his mouth and felt relief and happiness wash over her as she felt Damon's mouth relax and finally start drinking her blood. What kind of monster could have done that? But Elena already knew the answer – a vampire. No human could have done such damage to Damon Salvatore; no human could have been so cruel as to let him bleed to death – in the worst case scenario, they would have driven the stake inside of his heart without thinking twice. That thought made Elena's body shudder as she watched Damon fall deeper and deeper into unconsciousness. And from the look of the empty blood-bags all around the place, she was sure that it had been a vampire. The only question was – who?

After a few seconds, the vampire took her wrist out of his mouth, but Elena urgently stopped him.

'No, Damon! You have to keep drinking – you almost died…'

'That's enough, Elena…' But his voice sounded so weak to her ears, that she forced her wrist to his mouth again. She could clearly feel Damon giving up to the temptation that her blood truly was; the vampire's black veins appeared under his eyes and his fangs popped up, scraping along her skin. Although she should have felt scared, Elena couldn't help but nod as Damon directed his eyes to hers. She embraced herself for pain, but felt only two small tingles in her skin as the vampire's fangs had pierced her flesh. In earnest, she would've never let anyone drink so much blood from her, for she felt how all the powers were leaving her body. But the state in which she had found Damon had made her forget about her personal fears, since the desire to help him was present in every single cell of her body. So she didn't care if it hurt her or if he would drink too much. Elena was actually surprised to realize that the pain that she had felt the first time Damon drank her blood wasn't here. For a split second she wondered why – she had given Stefan her blood, more than once. But still, she had never felt such little pain. As she was beginning to lose control over her senses, Damon suddenly came to a halt, watching the girl with worried eyes.

'Damon, don't st...'

'No!' the vampire tightly took hold of the girl's hands as he shouted the words loud enough that Elena started trembling even more than before. Her reaction made Damon regret his way of handling the situation and he gently added 'I've had enough...' As he took in Elena's tears, Damon slowly sat up, took her face in his hands and gently started in his usual velvet voice.

'I'm fine now, Elena… You don't have to be scared anymore, sweety.' As Elena stared into Damon's beautiful blue eyes, she couldn't help but heavily sigh, before she heard Damon continue in a grateful tone.

'I'm fine and it's all because of you…' Elena's heart filled with warmth at the sound of those words. But instead of being able to smile, she found herself shedding fresh new tears.

'God, Damon… I'm so sorry…' As she said those words, Elena felt Damon's fingers gently caressing her cheeks and leaving warm, tingly trails. His voice sounded confused.

'What for?'

'I just can't stop crying…'

'That's okay, Elena…' He felt a grin appearing on his face and the tone of his voice had a humorous edge.

'When I found you here, I was so scared…' Elena said between sobs. Her words made Damon's features considerably mellow and his sad eyes took place of his former smile.

'I know you were, honey…' Despite her sobs, Elena realized that this was the first time that Damon would call her like that and she couldn't help but rejoice in the feeling of security that she felt when he was this sweet and caring. The girl, however, wondered how many times she would be hearing these gentle words coming out of Damon's mouth. With that thought in mind, Elena turned her swollen eyes towards Damon.

'I was so sure that you were going to die…' Damon felt his entire being shaken as he read the hidden meaning behind Elena's words. Could it be possible that this girl cared so much about him as her eyes let on? Surely, Damon had always known that there was a certain chemistry, a certain inexplicable bond between them, but he had never seen it coming from Elena until now. Or maybe he was simply imagining it – he hoped not. But, no! It was there alright – it had been there for such a long time, but Damon had just given up trying to make Elena figure it out. He had assumed the role of the good brother for such a long time that he had gone completely blind. And now, the vampire found himself so close – and not only in a physical sense – to his angel that the only thing he wanted to do was to kiss her cherry-red lips until she couldn't be able to breath anymore. Damon was on the verge of doing that when he suddenly saw Elena's right hand wrapped upon the necklace she had received from Stefan. The unbreakable bond between his brother and Elena. Damon realized the irony of the sentence, since his brother had almost managed to kill him tonight and thought about doing that to Elena. He changed his mind in the last minute.

'For a second there, Elena… I also thought that I was going to die…'

* * *

><p>As he turned off the water, Damon lazily got out of the shower, not happy about the confrontation that he would eventually have with Elena. The vampire was actually surprised that she hadn't asked him anything about the person that had attacked him. Not that he wanted her to do that. But Damon knew Elena better than she did – she was eventually going to ask. For a short moment Damon wondered if the girl had seen Stefan leave the barrack – he obviously couldn't ask her, for he would make her suspicious. He couldn't compel her 'cause she was wearing vervain; and Damon certainly didn't want for things to be like the last time he had compelled her. But he was in a dilemma. He obviously knew that telling Elena about Stefan would only make things worse for the girl – she had waited for her boyfriend for four whole months and to receive such a news right now wasn't going to help her in any way… But, on the other hand, not telling Elena the truth was equal to lying to her. And Damon didn't like that alternative more than the other; he actually hated both. Either way, Elena would eventually get hurt. And Damon wasn't even sure that the girl would believe that Stefan could do such a thing; after all, it was Stefan – the martyr – that they were talking about. Instead, Stefan the ripper wasn't as kind… But from his past experience regarding Elena, Damon knew that a lie wasn't going to solve anything. Unsure about what he should do, Damon put his clothes on and just as he was opening the bathroom door, he heard Elena's exhausted voice as she answered her phone.<p>

'Hello? Hello…?' There was a short pause in which the girl heavily inhaled before she went on in an unsure voice.

'Stefan?' God, she sounded so fragile and hopeful to Damon's ears...

'Stefan, if this is you… you'll be okay.' Her tone became convincing despite the gentleness in her voice. She still believed in him… she would always do.

'_I love you_, Stefan! Hold on to that!' Of course she did – she still loved his brother; she would always love Stefan… Damon suddenly remembered the discussion he had had with Elena one year ago in her room…

'_Come on, Damon, you care…'_

'_You're surprised that I thought you'd kiss me back…You can't imagine that I believe that you'd want to….'_

'_Damon…'_

'_That what we're doing here means something… __**You're the liar, Elena**__! There's something going on between us and you know it. And you're lying to me, you're lying to Stefan and most of all you're lying to yourself! I can prove it…'_

The sweet flavor of Elena's lips made Damon shiver as he remembered her desperately trying to pull away from him.

'_Damon, no! What's wrong with you?' _

'_Lie about this!'_

'_Stop it, you're better than this!'_

'_That's where you're wrong…'_

'_No, Damon, I care about you! Listen to me - I care about you, but… I love Stefan. It's always going to be Stefan!'_

It really was always going to be Stefan, wasn't it? As Damon remembered their talk, he realized that he owed it not only to his brother to be decent and good for a chance, but he especially owed it to Elena to behave. Her sweet words reverberated in his mind and the vampire winced _'You're better than this!_'In truth, Elena believed in Stefan. But she also believed in him… And she hadn't stopped believing in him for a second in spite of all the messed-up things that he had done to her along the way. As Damon entered his bedroom, he found a ravished, yet hopeful Elena sitting on his bed, probably waiting to give him the good news. But, strangely enough, she didn't start with that. Instead, the girl quickly jumped off the bed, taking her defensive and confident position that Damon knew he would soon see. Her voice, however was gentle and worried as she spoke.

'Damon, how are you feeling?' He knew there was no way of dodging the following question, so he simply decided to be honest.

'I'm better now, Elena, thank you… I'm pretty sure I'm completely healed.' There was a short moment of relief before Elena got nervous and worried again.

'Do you need more blood?' the girl saw the vampire turn around and wiggle his eyebrows at her.

'Why, are you offering some more?' Damon was obviously joking, but, in earnest, he couldn't help but feel his mouth fill with Elena's delicious scent. Seeing the girl's expression becoming reticent, Damon realized that his face had turned serious and quickly tried to mask it by genuinely laughing.

'Got you! Loosen up, Elena, I was just joking….'

'I hope you were, 'cause I was referring to a blood bag.'

'I'm fine, sweety…' Damon internally cursed himself for calling her like that – she was anything but _his_ sweetheart.

'I'm glad…' After a two-second pause, Elena took her serious frame again and locked her eyes to Damon's.

'Damon… what was the thing that attacked you tonight?' It was the vampire's turn to be reticent. But he played his role impeccably.

'A vampire… A much more powerful vampire, I might add.' From the tone of his voice, Elena knew that he wasn't lying about it.

'Who was he?' That would be the hardest part; but Damon figured that he could tell a possible, sane scenario that wasn't too far off.

'Someone from my past who wanted revenge. And he got it – or at least he thinks he did.' Damon could see Elena's eyebrows furrowing.

'Damon… what if he comes back?'

'I highly doubt that…'

'How can you know for sure? He almost killed you, Damon!' Of course she wouldn't let it go…

'He didn't…'

'But he wanted to… that's enough for you to know that he's not playing games!'

'Elena, I know this guy; if he's gone, I am sure he's not coming back…' He was definitely sure that Stefan would be coming back as soon as he found out that he hadn't finished the job, but there was no telling Elena about it. And plus, Damon still hoped that his brother hadn't deliberately tried to kill him. There was a small pause coming from the girl and Damon was almost relieved to see Elena give up. Almost…

'What's _wrong with you_?' Her expression became suspicious.

'What do you mean?' The vampire innocently asked.

'It sounds like you're almost defending this person…'

'What? Don't be ridiculous…'

'Am I being ridiculous? From what I remember, you killed my brother, Ric and John for less important reasons than this. And you're just letting this guy go without fighting or even considering breaking his neck the next time you see him?'

'I have everything under control, Elena…'Damon felt his tone becoming impatient and nervous as the seconds ticked by. He couldn't believe the conversation that he was having with Elena.

'You clearly have it under control…'her voice was ironic as she said the words 'You also had everything under control when I found you in the barrack…'

'Look, just trust me on this one. I know it's hard to, but believe me – Everything's okay.' Damon had no idea how he had ended up tightly holding Elena's shoulders in his arms and staring into her chocolate brown eyes. In the end, it turned out that he hadn't convinced her.

'That's not good enough…' Damon felt his blood starting to boil in his veins, but he kept his voice in a neutral tone.

'I don't get it… You usually leave these bloody affairs to me when I tell you to. I get them solved and you don't interfere. Answer me this one question…'As Elena simply nodded, the vampire proceeded, not wanting to let this opportunity escape.

'Why are you being like this, Elena?' A genuine frown appeared on her face as she answered in an uncertain tone.

'I don't understand…' Damon pierced her eyes as he asked her the following question.

'What made you change your mind? What made you question me like this just now?'

'Your careless, stubborn and snobby self…' Her answer was clear and concise, but Damon could see through the lie.

'If I recall, that's what I've been like since the first day we've met. I've never seen you react like this – ever. And there were a lot of times when you could have – hell, we've been through them all, right? But you never wanted to be a part of these things.' the vampire could see Elena's mask slowly falling down to pieces.

'So why did you do it a few minutes ago?' Damon had closed the distance between them and was now inches away from Elena's fragile and trembling body.

'Damon, why are you being so pushy?'

'What made you want to be a part of this, _Elena_?'

'The fact that I almost lost you, Damon, ok? I _don't want_ to see you get hurt! I'm… worried about you…' Damon felt his smirk forming and he slowly backed away from Elena.

'Thank you…' Just as he was about to turn around and head towards the basement to get a blood bag, he heard Elena's annoyed voice.

'Yes, I worry about you. Why do you _even_ have to hear me say it?' She looked genuinely pissed at him, exactly the way a little child looks like when he's caught with a lie. Before Damon could answer the girl, he heard his phone ring in his pocket. When he saw the number, he quickly answered, marvelling at the name that appeared on his screen.

'Liz?' Elena felt as surprised as Damon was as she heard him say the sheriff's name.

'Damon, hi… I'm sorry to call you in the middle of the night like this, but … something's happened.'

'What is it, Liz?' the vampire felt his eyebrows furrow as the woman was clearly uncomfortable with the message she was delivering. After a short pause, the sheriff heavily inhaled before beginning.

'It's Andy… We found her in the studio downtown ten minutes ago.'

'Is she okay?' Damon felt the words curl up in his neck as he waited for a positive answer. It never came…

'Damon, I'm so sorry to tell you this, but… Andy's dead.'

* * *

><p>Three hours after the sheriff's phone call, Damon found himself standing next to the window in Stefan's now vandalized bedroom. After he had argued with Elena about why she should stay here and not come with him downtown, the vampire had gone to the crime scene where he found a sympathetic and kind Liz that remembered him of the friend she used to be to him. After he had seen Andy's body, he felt that he was going to lose it. Apparently, she had fallen from the platform in the studio which was 10 meters high by accident – or so said the police. But when Damon took a close look at the body, he saw two small punctures on the left side of Andy's neck, which hadn't been seen by the humans. And right after he had left Andy's body, a text message appeared on his mobile screen, sent by an anonymous number.<p>

'_You now know what I'm capable of. I wouldn't keep looking if I were you, Damon…'_

As realization hit in, Damon rushed back to the boarding house, for he felt that he could rip somebody limb from limb if he stayed in town any longer. With Elena peacefully sleeping on his bed, Damon found himself heading towards his brother's bedroom, where Elena couldn't possibly hear him. In a moment of complete craziness, Damon lost control over his actions and five minutes later found the entire bedroom devastated.

To say that he was angry was underestimating his emotions – he was infuriated. Infuriated with himself for believing that Stefan could be saved and infuriated with his brother for killing one of his good friends. However, the image of Lexi popped into his mind and Damon found himself feeling guilty for every single thing that he had made Stefan go through since they had turned into vampires. He was no better than his brother – hell, he had spent 145 years torturing him for taking Katherine away from him. And the little bitch had never even loved him to begin with. And then he had tried to steal Elena from Stefan just to get back at him; and had ended up falling helplessly in love with her. If he thought about it really hard, Damon had always been worse than Stefan. But he now felt betrayed, 'cause no matter how much he had hated his brother, Damon had never actually tried to _kill_ Stefan. And it seemed that his brother didn't have the same feelings. As he watched the sunrise from Stefan's window, Damon felt himself drift away as a memory from his childhood started quickly unfolding in front of his eyes.

_It was the summer of 1850- Damon was only nine years old back then. It was on a beautiful morning at the end of June that he and a three-year-old Stefan were cheerfully playing in the garden of their father's mansion. Damon had just received the latest release of miniature soldiers for his birthday and had added the new army to his growing collection. He had always been fascinated about these little plastic men, which he saw as his own would love to play with them and give them orders on the Damon didn't let Stefan play with his toys, because he would usually start throwing them away or running around holding them and screaming – 'I killed you – I woooon, Damon!'. _

_But on that particular day their father had asked them not to fight anymore, for their mother wasn't feeling so well. Not wanting to make their father angry, Damon had given in and let Stefan play with __his beloved soldiers. Damon was happy that his younger brother was finally satisfied. Every time that he wouldn't let Stefan do something, his brother would go yelling his lungs out at their father and denounce Damon's traitorous actions. And their father, being upset with his wife's health and growing more found of the little one, would always punish Damon for the so-called 'lack of understanding' that he showed towards Stefan. Damon would be upset because of their father's unrighteousness, but he would always find alleviation in his mother's loving arms. _

_However, in the last couple of months, their mother's health had become worse and she couldn't even get out of bed, let alone be able to spend too much time with her little sons. Stefan didn't seem to mind that much –a normal behavior since he hadn't reached the age at which his emotions would resurface. But Damon felt the love for his mother burn inside of him and he used to cry every day when he couldn't be with her. He remembered how grateful he was for the fact that their mother would always back him up when it came to their father. Damon would sometimes hear their parents argue, even after his mother got really ill, but he didn't understand it at first. He eventually found out that the subject of their fervent discussions was him; and that's when he understood why his father was often too harsh with him. _

_But Damon wasn't upset with his father – not today. He was immensely joyful and felt like he could run, jump and even fly if he wanted to. The older brother was so happy because it was their mother's birthday and he was definitely going to be allowed to see her today. He had wondered what he could give her for her birthday, and when the answer didn't come, he beat himself up, desperately trying to figure out how he could show his mother how much he loved her. This morning, while looking at his collection of soldiers, he had finally found the answer to his dilemma. So he picked the most beautiful soldier – his beloved general – and he securely put the toy in his pocket. _

_As Stefan was focused on playing with the new army of soldiers, Damon quickly got off the grass and quietly made his way through the house up to the first floor, to the room where his mother was sleeping. The boy was lucky – neither his father, nor the maids were anywhere in sight and he could easily get into the bedroom without being caught. Damon was relieved to find his mother awake, but his high spirits quickly disappeared as he realized that she looked worse than the last time he'd seen her. Her face was pale and she looked so thin and weak as if she hadn't eaten in weeks… The worst thing was that she hadn't even seen him come in – she was sadly looking outside the window at her favorite white roses. With a heavy heart, Damon slowly went to her bed and just before he reached it, his mother suddenly turned her head, for she had heard his little footsteps in the meantime. _

_A wide smile took place of her former agony and, just for a second, Damon could see the strong, jovial woman that their mother used to be. The little boy was all of a sudden jumping with joy, relieved to see the most important being in his life share his childish bliss. His mother silently beckoned him to come next to her and as her older son sat on the bed, she pulled him close to her and laid a gentle kiss on his forehead. Damon was entranced as he heard his mother's warm voice address him. _

'_My sweet Damon…' she said while she caressed her son's cheeks '…how ever did you manage to come in here?'_

_The little boy was happy to see that his mother wasn't angry for his intrusion. 'I snuck past father and the servants…' he said in an innocent tone._

_His mother's weak laughter filled the room. 'Of course you did – you've always been so brave and loving... I just hope that your father won't be upset.'_

'_I don't mind.' Damon simply said. 'I wanted to give you this. Happy birthday, mother!' With that, Damon took the general out of his pocket and carefully placed it in his mother's skinny hand. He was confused to see his mother's eyes suddenly fill with tears as she understood what present she had just received._

'_Oh, Damon, thank you, my dear one… But, darling, you don't need to give me this…'_

'_But I want to!' Damon stated in a determined tone._

'_I know you do, but… This is your favorite general, isn't it?' As he looked at his mother's face with surprise, Damon thought that he should tell her the truth. 'It doesn't matter. I wanted you to have the general and always keep him by your side – he'll protect you from what I can't. And he'll be with you whenever I won't. Maybe he'll help you get better.'_

_As the woman heard her son's confession, the tears slowly started coming down her cheeks. She felt so weakened… 'Thank you so much, my dear. I'll keep it with me forever.' _

'_Really, mother? You will?' the little boy hopefully asked._

'_Of course I will. It's a perfect gift.' Damon couldn't help but marvel at his mother's beautiful light blue eyes… Every friend or relative would wonder at the perfect resemblance of their eyes and he was more than proud to have something in common with her. He was suddenly pulled out of his trance as his mother gently spoke._

'_You're such a good person, Damon. Now you listen to me carefully…' As her son's big gorgeous eyes popped out in understanding, she continued in a feeble tone: 'No matter what happens, I want you to never change – always be your kind, loving and courageous self. Can you promise me this?' The boy quickly nodded in response._

'_And please promise me one more thing – that you'll look after Stefan as well. I know you two sometimes have different opinions, but he'll need his big brother's help as he grows up. You have to teach him to be as good of a person as you are, my son.' Although Damon didn't adore Stefan, he reacted almost instantly to his mother's request, realizing that he actually had strong feelings for his baby brother. 'I promise, mother – I'll take care of Stefan!'_

'_Thank you, my darling. I love you so much, Damon… Never forget that!' his mother said as she gently caressed her son's silky black hair._

'_I won't, mother. I love you too.' As he said these words, Damon threw his arms around his mother's neck and felt her hold him back with as much power as she could. After a few minutes which felt like hours, Damon felt his mother's body colder than usual. He slowly took his arms from around her neck and looked at her face. Her eyes were closed and she seemed to be sleeping. But after a short period of time, Damon realized that his mother's chest wasn't moving anymore. He thought that he was imagining it and gently tried to wake her up. But she wouldn't move at all. The boy then felt fear as he started shaking his mother as hard as he could, not caring that he might hurt her anymore. _

_One of the servants found him about half an hour later. Damon had been tightly holding his mother in his arms, kissing her cheeks and forehead and begging her to wake up. He had tears in his eyes, on his cheeks and his shirt was completely wet as well. He was also cold from clinging to his mother's frozen body for such a long time. The boy could hear the noises, a few screams and his father's shocked and desperate voice, but he couldn't understand any of it. All of a sudden, he felt himself picked up by somebody and desperately tried to make his father let go of him. He just wanted to be with his mother, he couldn't leave her alone now. He bravely fought his father, but in the end fell to the living-room floor in exhaustion._

_As Damon looked up, he realized that his father was comforting him for the very first time in his existence. Later on he would realize that it would also be the last time that his father showed him such understanding. The little boy had never seen his father act like this. He simply looked Damon in the eye and broke into a sob as he said 'She's gone now, son. There's nothing you can do for her anymore.'_

Damon tightly closed his eyes as his mother's face and words came back to him. All of those promises that he had made her regarding Stefan... he hadn't accomplished any of those things – at least, not in the last 147 years he hadn't. He felt that he had undoubtedly failed his mother – his sweet, caring, decent mother who had been the only person that had truly loved him...

A few seconds later Damon found himself standing on the hallway with his back to Stefan's room, not even sure what he was doing there. He simply stared out the window to the dawn of this new day; that was when he heard Elena rushing down the hallway towards him. Damon didn't even realize that she was upset until he distinctively heard her start at him in an angry tone.

'Why didn't you tell me? Why did you keep it a secret?' The moment Damon saw Elena fluttering the newspapers from his wardrobe, he realized what she was talking about.

'Can we not do this now? I'm having a really bad day…' But he knew that she wouldn't be giving up this easily.

'All summer, every single time I came to you with a lead, you made me feel like an idiot for having hope…' Elena definitely didn't expect the tone with which Damon responded. He sounded defeated and hopeless.

'You _were_ an idiot… We both were.' As Damon turned his gaze once again towards the backyard, Elena gently squeezed his arm, directing his gaze towards her. Strangely enough, her voice was actually gentle and understanding.

'Tell me what you know, Damon… Please!'

'I know you need to go back home, Elena…' the girl knew that Damon had had to deal with Andy's death; she knew that he had been attacked the previous night; she realized how hard it must have been for him. But despite all of this, she couldn't help but get angry at the thought of Damon lying to her once again – especially when it came to Stefan. In spite of herself, Elena felt her voice go up an octave as she started.

'We're supposed to be in this together. Why didn't you tell me that you were tracking Klaus's victims?'

'Are you sure you really want to know the answer to that question?' Damon's voice sounded completely flat as he spoke. Elena simply balled her fist and answered in a convincing tone.

'Of course I do, Damon! Do you actually think that I would like to be lied to about Stefan?' As Damon didn't answer, Elena repeated her former question. 'Why didn't you tell me that you were tracking Klaus's victims?' And that was when Damon finally exploded.

'Because they're not Klaus's victims, Elena, they're Stefan's.' Elena felt her knees go weak. She thought that she hadn't heard Damon well enough.

'What..?'

'He's left a trail of body parts _up and down_ the Eastern seaboard…'

'No, you're wrong…' Damon could hear the desperation in Elena's voice; but he couldn't stop either; she wanted the truth – she would be finally getting the truth. He started closing the distance between them.

'I've seen it happen before – he's flipped the switch.' Elena felt the papers in her hand being brutally snatched away by Damon.

'Full blown ripper…'

'Stop it, Damon!' the vampire could see Elena losing control over her features and reactions as the information sank in.

'No, _you stop_, Elena! Stop _looking _for him, stop _waiting_ for him to come back home, just STOP! Stefan is gone and he's _not_ coming back… Not in your lifetime…' Damon felt his heart wince as he took in Elena's pool of tears that was quickly forming in her eyes.

'Stefan would never do that, Damon… He would never hurt innocent people if he had a choice…' her voice sounded so weak even to her own ears. The vampire felt his own eyes fill with tears as he responded in a cracked tone.

'Tell that to Andy, Elena…'

As the girl's eyes went wide with shock, Damon left as quickly as possible to the living-room. The only thing that could now keep him from doing something stupid was a good old glass of scotch. But not even the alcohol could help him forget – it didn't matter how much he would try to forget the last 24 hours, 'cause he would never do it. The vampire slowly walked across the living-room; His legs suddenly came to a halt as he started looking around the huge old room – it was like he had just seen it for the very first time. It suddenly dawned on him that the living- room looked a lot like their childhood house's ball room – he wondered how it was possible that he had never realized the staggering resemblance. Despite his desire to bury everything inside of him, Damon found himself remembering his father's words once again.

'_She's gone now, son. There's nothing you can do for her anymore.'_

Although he didn't want to think the words or even say them out loud, Stefan's actions led Damon to believe the same thing about his brother – He was gone now and there was nothing he could do for him anymore… Damon suddenly felt an access of pain and anger hitting him from the inside and threw his glass as hard as he could. As the glass smashed into hundreds of pieces just above the mantelpiece, Damon heard tiny footsteps behind him. Before he knew it, a swollen-eyed Elena was standing in front of him in the same white dress like the previous night – God, she truly was an angel; she must have truly cared about him; Otherwise, what other sane person would have dared to face him in the state that he was? Damon felt tears flowing down his cheeks for the first time in a long period.

'I'm sorry about Andy, Damon…' Elena said in a gentle and sympathetic voice.

'I'm sorry about everything….' Damon felt the girl's smooth hands gently collect his tears from his cheeks while lovingly caressing his face. The look that the vampire shot Elena made the girl feel helpless and weak – there was so much unspoken pain and regret in his eyes that it reminded Elena of Stefan. But she couldn't remember ever seeing Stefan as pained as Damon now was.

'What's wrong, Damon? Tell me…'

'I failed her, Elena…' pity swept across Elena's features as she thought that Damon was talking about Andy; in earnest, Damon was actually referring to his mother. That just made Elena touch Damon's skin more gentle and with more love than she had ever done before.

'I failed Stefan as well…' How could she not have seen this until now? Damon was human – he was even more human than Stefan would ever be; but he had simply never showed it to anybody – fearing that others would see him as a weak person.

'Damon…' but Elena was interrupted by him.

'And, most of all… I failed _you_.' The girl felt her heart both wince and fill with love as she took in his words. Elena had never ever seen Damon open up to her as he now did – although it tortured her to the fullest to see just how much pain he had to endure, she had never been happier with him. 'Cause he was finally giving her the missing part in their relationship – complete and utter sincerity. It seemed like every day, a new piece of the puzzle called Damon Salvatore was revealing and each piece made the entire puzzle infinitely more beautiful than before. But she couldn't let him take the entire blame upon him, she just had to make him stop.

'Damon, stop…Listen to me.' She gently directed his eyes to lock with hers. 'You couldn't have helped Andy – you had no idea what would happen to her. And…Stefan… chose to do this, he chose to save you and you shouldn't be beating yourself up for it. You're not the reason why he's turned into the monster that he now is' –at that point Elena felt a tear go down her cheek- 'he's just completely lost it… You might be right, he might not be coming back and that's not your fault either. But I never want you to forget this – _you have never failed me_, Damon… When no one else was there for me, you were the one who constantly saved me and believed in me. You were my best friend and my hero; and I could never stop thanking you for what you've given me… Just stop blaming yourself, Damon. You're such a good man, you're so much better than the person that you let other people see. You should start seeing it for yourself.'

By the end of Elena's speech, the tears had disappeared from Damon's face. The vampire gently, but firmly gripped Elena's hand in his and brought her face as close as possible to his – Elena couldn't help but heavily exhale as she found her lips so close to Damon's; but she couldn't look away from his gorgeous blue eyes – they were usually like the deepest ocean in which she felt that she was constantly drowning. But, strangely enough, this was the first time when Elena felt in every cell of her body that she belonged there; that she would always want to be the thing that those blue eyes pierced and lovingly stared at. The girl saw Damon shaking his head as if he couldn't believe what he was about to say.

'The only reason that I am this good man is_ you_, Elena… You make me better, you make me want to _be_ better; you make me fight more than anybody has ever done. You've changed me and, believe me when I say that _I am the one_ who's never going to stop thanking you for what you've given me…' Elena felt her head dizzy as she saw Damon reaching down to the left part of her face and felt him kiss the skin right above her lips. It was a loving, mesmerizing and innocent kiss that made Elena internally scream to have his lips on hers; but she already knew why this was wrong – Stefan… For a second, Elena found herself forgetting about Stefan and about the crazy world outside. The moment Damon gently pulled back, Elena was grateful that he had always respected her to the fullest since Stefan had left. His decent behavior had made Elena's respect for him grow until it couldn't get any bigger. Although she thought that she was handling it, Elena's each and every cell in her body paralyzed her as she caught a glimpse of the love that Damon was hiding behind his blue eyes…

* * *

><p><strong>Guys, I can't wait to see what you THINK! Until next time... :)<strong>


	9. Set fire to the rain

**Author's note: Guys, I just can't find words to thank you all so much for your encouraging and positive reviews! I was truly shocked to find 10 new reviews for the last chapter. I'm extremely happy if you liked it, cause if it weren't for you, I wouldn't be writing this story anymore. Your reviews only make me even more nervous regarding your response to this particular chapter. Again, I've used more dialogue, and I hope that you're going to like it better. Owing to the fact that I'm extremely tired and haven't got too much time, I haven't triple checked my work for grammar/spelling mistakes, as I usually do; hope it's gonna be fine. Okay, so regarding this chapter - I've used two songs. The first one is called 'Total eclipse of the heart' and is performed by Bonnie Tyler, and the second one is called 'Always' and is performed by Bon Jovi. You'll see how I tried to fit them in later on in the chapter. Also, after reading my work, I would recommend you watch the following video :just add www. + youtube. + com/watch?v=_PvuG5tPQs , created by Beautifullytragic6, because I honestly believe that it's the best video about Damon and Elena that I've ever come across. And, plus, it will express many more emotions and memories that Elena will be going through at the middle of the chapter. I won't do such a thing too often, but I just felt that it was too good not to share with you guys. And plus, it fits perfectly with a bit of my story... The title that I chose for this chapter is inspired from the song 'Set fire to the rain', by Adele. I truly hope that it's what you guys expected. Thank you so much for being patient, I appreciate it very much... Enjoy chapter 9!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries. My story centres around the characters of the TV show that belong to their rightful owners (TV script by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec) and of Vampire Diaries series written by L.J. Smith. I do not intend any infringement upon any music that might inspire chapter titles or parts of my story.**

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><p><strong>9. SET FIRE TO THE RAIN<strong>

* * *

><p>'Elena… are you alright?' At hearing Bonnie's worried voice, Elena realized that she'd been once again daydreaming. In earnest, she wasn't alright at all; she had, once again, lost herself in thoughts about the weird dreams she'd been having. Bonnie and Elena were actually in her bedroom, preparing for the fundraiser ball at the Lockwood mansion. An event for which they had waited for two whole months.<p>

'I'm fine, Bonnie...' Elena said in a dreamy voice as she was admiring her bright red dress which was laid on the bed linen.

'Are you sure? You don't _look_ fine to me…' There was no tricking Bonnie, was it?

'I guess there's no use in denying it… Something's just not right.' At hearing Elena's statement, Bonnie turned around, looking genuinely worried and asked in a soft voice.

'What's wrong?'

'I can't explain it, Bonnie. I just…feel that something's different.' The girl stated as she wrapped her hand protectively around her necklace.

'Can you at least give me a clue as to what is different?' her friend asked while starting to straighten her curly hair in the mirror.

'Have you ever had the feeling that a piece of the puzzle is missing? That you're trying to remember something, but you can't?' Bonnie suddenly stopped arranging her hair and turned around, watching Elena with a strange expression.

'Yeah, but, Elena, that happens to everyone. It actually has a name as well - old age.'

'No, it's not the same, Bonnie… and you're really not helping.' Elena felt a frown appear on her face.

'Ok, I hear you… So, tell me, what's going on?'

'I've been having these strange dreams; well, only one actually. It's been going on and on since the night Stefan…bit me.' It was so weird to even think about that event, let alone say it out loud. But it had actually happened; and Elena knew that it was useless to keep denying it.

'What is the dream about?'

'That's the problem. The only thing I can remember when I wake up is the last part – in which I'm standing in the middle of my room, holding the necklace in my hands and facing the bedroom window.'

'And why is that strange, Elena? It's just a dream…'

'That's the thing… I somehow feel that it's telling me something.' At the sight of Bonnie's skeptic expression, Elena quickly explained. 'I don't _usually_ believe in this stuff, but I sometimes find myself thinking hard about something when I hold my necklace. And I don't understand why…' Bonnie's eyebrows furrowed in response to something that she was probably thinking about.

'What is it?' Elena reluctantly asked.

'Do you think that… Klaus compelled you that night?' It took Elena a few seconds to get over the shock, but she eventually responded in a flat tone.

'I've never thought about that… I don't think he would have had a reason to. But even if he had, I couldn't remember any of it, right?'

'That's correct, but… that doesn't mean that it couldn't remain buried somewhere deep inside of your mind. After all, compulsion doesn't completely erase your memory, it just makes some events invisible.' As Elena took that piece of information in, she heard Bonnie go on.

'Do you recall how Caroline said that she could remember all the things that Damon had done to her right after she had turned into a vampire?' Although Elena hated to remember the _old_ Damon, she could clearly recall the things that he had made Caroline go through at that time.

'Now that I think about it, I actually do…'

'Well, the reason for that is that these memories don't just vanish into thin air… they remain there until something wakes them up. Even if they compel you, vampires don't take your memory away forever.' Elena found herself dumbstruck.

'How do you _know_ this stuff?'

'Elena, have you forgotten who you're talking to?'

'Right…you're a witch… sorry about that.'

'It's okay.' The wide smile on Bonnie's face made Elena think hard about something.

'Bonnie… do you know how exactly Caroline could remember events from when she was under compulsion? I mean, the mechanism?'

'I'm sorry to disappoint you, Elena, but I have no idea whatsoever…'

'That's okay, I understand… It just makes me wonder whether I could remember those things without becoming a vampire. Do you think that there's a spell for that?'

'My dear, there's a spell for everything; so there must be one for this as well. But I unfortunately don't know anything about it.'

'I understand…'

'Is it that important for you to know?' Elena thought about that for a few seconds.

'I can't explain it, but, somehow… it's more than important. But seeing as you don't know the spell…' That made Bonnie retort with indignation.

'Who said that I couldn't figure it out? Hello, I have a cousin who's a far better witch than I am.'

'But… Lucy didn't come to Mystic Falls when you went after her.'

'Just because she didn't come with me doesn't mean that she can't help me figure out this particular spell…'

* * *

><p>Damon had been sitting at the bar for the past hour; he had lost count of the drinks he'd already had. But he knew that he should stop soon. In about three hours the fundraiser ball would be starting and in the most idiotic moment of his life, he had promised Elena to go as well; even though he wasn't going with her. Of course he wasn't; 'cause Elena now had a bodyguard on her tail. Well, it was his brother that they were talking about, but that didn't make Stefan less of a pain in the ass. Just as he was about to get another drink, he heard Ric taking a seat right next to him.<p>

'I see _you're_ having a good day. It's not even evening.' Damon was surprised to see that his old friend was talking to him. Since he had killed him two months ago, Damon hadn't heard a single word from Ric. Not that he could blame him… But it was good to see that he was beginning to forgive him.

'Oh, but who said that the party can't start _earlier_ today? After all, it's gonna suck as it always does… Hey, Marrria, bring my friend here… whatever I'm having.' Ric threw Damon a pitiful look before he asked in a reluctant tone.

'Why are you in such a bad shape anyway? I thought that everything was fine, since Rebecca left town because that Michael guy began to track them both down.' Damon slowly turned towards Ric, having an ironic smile plastered on his face.

'Who said that this had anything to do with Klaus?'

'Oh… is Mason torturing you again?' Damon sniffed at Alaric's ironic choice of words.

'Ha-ha… Nooo, but you're getting close. The one torturing me…she's just not a ghost; she's actually alive and beautiful as the sun shining in the sky.' Alaric couldn't help but pity Damon as he saw the vampire imaginarily paint the sun in the sky with his finger.

'Damon… I thought you'd buried the hatchet regarding Elena.'

'No can do, Ric… No can do…' Alaric knew better than getting into a conversation about Elena; but he simply couldn't leave his friend in the state that he was in.

'What's wrong _this time_, Damon?'

'Oh, nothing important, Ric…'

'If it weren't important, you wouldn't be beating yourself up for it like this…'

'What do _you_ care anyway, Ric? You haven't spoken to me in the last two months, so why should I all of a sudden start pouring out my feelings to you, huh?' As Damon said the words, he sipped from his drink, trying to look as if he didn't care, but failing miserably.

' 'Cause, like it or not, Damon, I'm the only friend you've got. Apart from your brother...who's not in the best shape right now. And, I don't know which the sick, twisted reason why I still care, is, but I do. So, tell me…what's wrong with you?' It had been the first time in the conversation that Damon actually turned towards Ric, faced him in the eye and truthfully started speaking in a sad tone.

'I can't be what other people _want_ me to be, Ric…' Before the teacher could respond, Damon continued his lamentation.

'I can't be what _she_ wants me to be. Because I'm not human and I miss it – I miss it more than anything in the world…'

'Damon, you've changed a lot since we first met you. Once in a while you screw up, but it's normal… we _all_ screw up.'

'Yeah, but 'once in a while' would never be good enough for Elena… She needs someone like my do-gooder of a brother used to be…'

'You still haven't told her yet, have you, Damon?'

'Tell her what?'

'That you love her…'

'Look who's talking! The person that a few months ago wanted me to keep as far away from Elena as possible... You've got some nerve, buddy.'

'I thought that it would be the best thing for her. But I've seen that it isn't the case… So, you haven't told her already?' A strange laughter came out of Damon's throat as he was pretending to be amused about that question.

'What's so funny about that?' Alaric couldn't help but notice that Damon's expression suddenly changed from amusement to pure agony, as he spinning the glass in his hands.

'Oh, Ric, if you only knew…'

* * *

><p>'I've found it, Elena!' The girl turned around, frightened by Bonnie's urgent tone.<p>

'Found what?'

'The… Oh my God, Elena, you look… stunning!' Just as she heard the compliment from her friend, Elena turned around so as to show her long red dress off a bit. She was actually feeling as good as she was looking, for the first time in her life. The girl didn't know why, but she just felt that this night was going to be special. Or, at least she hoped it to be.

'Thanks a lot, Bonnie. You look beautiful as well!' Elena sincerely told her friend, appraising her deep-blue Cleopatra-like dress.

'Not as beautiful as you, missy… Any special occasion why you look so radiant tonight?'

'No, not really. Maybe a fresh, new start… But…tell me, what did you find?'

'The spell we were talking about a few hours ago – I've just finished talking to Lucy and she told me how to do it.' Bonnie was surprised to see Elena actually reluctant for the first time in her life.

'What's wrong? You wanted to find out, right?'

'Yeah, it's just that… what if… it's something really bad, Bonnie? I don't think I can take any more surprises.'

'Well, that's just something you have to decide, Elena. You know that better than I do, sweety. I'm just the shop-assistant. You're the customer…' Elena seemed to ponder upon the subject a bit, until she realized what she really wanted. As she turned around to face Bonnie, she heard her friend ask in an understanding voice.

'So, what's it going to be?'

* * *

><p>'Damon? Damon!'<p>

'Yeah, sorry about that… what were you saying, dear?' In earnest, Damon couldn't care less about what this girl – was she called Laura? – was saying. They were standing next to one of the windows in the Lockwood mansion, where the ball was taking place tonight. Beside the fact that he hated being here, Damon also loathed the theme of the party – 'The Academy awards'. That could basically be translated into the fact that people had to put up their best dresses and costumes, get together and pretend that they were actors from freakin' Beverly Hills. Even he had had to put on his best tux for this event. For God's sake – how lamer could these town parties get?

Just as Damon was trying to shut out his date from his head, he suddenly felt his heart melt at the sight of the most beautiful creature he had ever laid eyes on. Elena had just made her entrance in the room, looking ten times more breathtaking than a movie star would ever do. Her hair was let loose, with only a few minor modifications, and her make-up was absolutely perfect, but the thing that made Damon – and other twenty men in the room – stare at was the girl's long bright-red dress, that made Elena look just like a mermaid. But, of course, she would be far more beautiful than any fantasy-mermaid. Hell, she herself was a living fantasy. Although she wasn't his, Damon couldn't help but picture the girl by his side for just a few seconds; at the same time, he found himself envying his stupid brother, who, still under compulsion, didn't care even a bit about Elena leaving her alone, while he was making a fool of himself with the other guests.

_Turnaround, every now and then I get a  
>little bit lonely and you're never coming around<em>

But Damon couldn't help but notice that something was wrong with her. The more he looked, the more he realized that something was extremely wrong about Elena. But he simply couldn't put his finger on it.

_Turnaround, Every now and then I get a  
>little bit tired of listening to the sound of my tears<em>

Just as he was about to leave Laura, he felt his soul freeze the moment Elena looked him straight in the eye.

_Turnaround, Every now and then I get a  
>little bit terrified and then I see the look in your eyes<em>

They had gone through a lot together, but Damon had never seen Elena this broken down in his life. There was something in her eyes that had made more damage than any other thing before.

_Turnaround bright eyes, Every now and  
>then I fall apart<em>

And that frightened Damon to the fullest. It was as if… Elena could read his soul inside out. Before he could even think the girl's reaction through and go after her, Damon realized that Elena wasn't in the room anymore.

* * *

><p>Elena found herself helplessly wandering around the backyard of the Lockwood mansion; better said, almost crawling. The girl had no idea how she had escaped from the ball room, 'cause she couldn't remember a thing – absolutely anything apart from Damon's face, which she couldn't shove away from her mind. It was as if someone had plastered his God-like face in front of her eyes and punishing her. She couldn't help it; whether she closed her eyes or opened them, the only thing that she could see were memories. Heart-wrenching memories that wouldn't stop coming and hitting her over and over again. The moment she reached the gazebo Elena's knees went weak and she felt herself wobbling, unable to resist the sudden urge to fall into unconsciousness. She hadn't even realized that it was raining until she started trembling because of her soaked skin. The girl slowly raised her eyes to the sky and felt a few lonely tears wetting her burning skin.<p>

What had she done…? She had been such an idiot… How could she have been _so wrong_ about him? How could she have _always _chosen _Stefan_ instead of Damon? Elena didn't know; it was like somebody had finally opened the door to Damon's soul and was laughing at her from the burning pits of hell.

He had tried to tell her so many times how he really felt…

'_You should know that I love you, Elena…'_

Elena had always seen it in his deep blue eyes…

… in his gestures…

… in his loving touch…

He had always been her friend…

… her companion…

… and her hero…

And she had only hurt him…

'_Why are you so surprised that I would kiss you?'_

'_I'm not surprised that you would kiss me. I'm surprised you thought that I'd kiss you back…'_

…rejected him…

'_What do you want?'_

'_I wanna apologize…'_

'_Damon…'_

'_Please! Elena... feeding you my blood was wrong.'_

'_Yes you were.'_

'_And I know I don't deserve your forgiveness, but I need it.'_

'_And... I need some time, maybe a lot of time.'_

'_True, of course... Take all the time you need.'_

…and lied to him in the most sacrilegious ways…

'_Listen to me, Damon, I care about you… But I love Stefan, it's __**always**__ going to be Stefan!_

And for what? Elena had done everything so that she wouldn't betray Stefan and their beautiful relationship. She had denied her feelings for Stefan's brother, she had done everything in her power to fight against it, to swallow it all up and to keep on going the same way… But all of this time she had only betrayed herself and, most of all, Damon. And what had Elena gotten back from Stefan? He had chosen Damon over her; he had left the girl abandoned for four whole months and without knowing if he was dead or alive; and he had also attacked her that dreadful night… A shiver involuntarily went down the girl's spine as she remembered Stefan ruthlessly taking her blood against her will. She knew that he had never wanted to do those things; that he had only saved his brother; that he had been loyal to Klaus just so that he wouldn't discover she was alive; and that he had been under compulsion when he had bitten her. But nothing would ever make it all go away. Nothing would _ever_ be the same between them… No matter how much Elena wanted it, she could never forget the things that Stefan had made her go through…

In contrast, Damon had never abandoned her – he had always been there for her; always by her side, no matter how much he suffered or he gave up on. He had always put her in front of everything else in his life… He had made her promises; but the promises that Damon had made to Elena, he had kept…

'_No one's gonna hurt you, especially not my brother.' _And so had it been.

'_I promise you that I will never leave you again.'_ And there he was - once again, for the hundredth time by her side, although she wasn't his in the first place.

'_I will… always… choose… you!'_ _Oh my God…_

Who was she kidding? As the first sob in her chest came to life, the girl's entre being was shaken to its core. Elena couldn't help but sense her knees collapsing and tears springing from her eyes as she felt her chest powerfully fighting against the panic attack that she was having. She couldn't breath… she just couldn't; it was useless to try and deny it anymore; useless to even find sense or reason in her feelings…

With one quick movement, in which Elena concentrated her entire force, the girl ripped the vervain necklace from her throat and dropped it next to her feet. But she still couldn't shake off the feeling of choking. How… _how_ could she have been so _blind_, so _egocentric_ and so _careless_ regarding her feelings? Elena started cursing herself, cursing her decisions and all the consequences that had come with them. It just couldn't be true – the girl tried to tell herself that she hadn't missed her one and only chance at finally being happy; that Damon was never going to know how she really felt about him; that he would always think that the girl could never share his true feelings…

The memory of that God-forsaken night came back to life again and Elena felt paralyzed, for this was the first time that she allowed herself to remember that painful scene. She could see it so clearly, as if it had been yesterday…

_Exhausted and disappointed, Elena was staring at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, bewildered by all the events which had happened that day. She had been lucky….again. But she knew very well that it had had nothing to do with luck – it had been all because of Stefan and… Damon. Elena didn't know why, but she felt herself sighing the moment Damon's disappointed face popped in her mind. The girl momentarily closed her eyes remembering his hurt expression the moment she had hugged Stefan and not him. The bad part was that she couldn't do anything about it – not now or ever again… Why was she even _thinking_ about this? She put her towel down and as she was reluctantly heading towards her bed, Elena heard her favorite soft-voice in the world. _

'_Cute PJ's...' As she looked up, Elena could actually see the vampire sitting on the window pane. In spite of herself, Elena heard herself answering in a reluctant tone._

'_I'm tired, Damon…' The vampire seemed as if he had understood the underlying message, but Elena still saw him coming towards her… _

'_I brought you this.' He was holding her… necklace! _

'_I thought that was gone… thank you.' A smile full of gratitude had actually appeared on her face. But it disappeared as quickly as she saw Damon retreating his hand from hers._

'_Please give it back...' _

'_I just have to say something.' But…it didn't make any sense to Elena._

'_Why do you have to say it with my necklace?' Now she just sounded scared, even to her own ears. Her reaction seemed to have taken Damon by surprise._

'_Because… what I'm about to say is probably the most selfish thing that I've ever said in my life…' A mixture of butterflies and pure fear started dancing inside Elena's stomach as she took in the vampire's words._

'_Damon, don't go there…' _

'_I just have to say it once, you just need to hear it…'_

_I love you, Elena…' She had always suspected his feelings for her, and had always underestimated them. But to hear them catch life from his beautiful lips in such a manner made every cell in Elena's body paralyze and she found herself listening to each and every syllable of Damon's words, being fascinated by them. _

'_And it's because I love you that… I can't be selfish with you. And why you can't do this…' His face – it held so much remorse and so many regrets; but especially love, pure and utter love which he clearly couldn't hide anymore. Elena thought that she was going to melt._

'_I don't deserve you, but my brother does…' Elena felt her breath stop in her neck as she saw Damon slowly approaching her and before she knew it, the vampire had planted a gentle kiss on her forehead and was now lovingly caressing her cheeks. _

'_God, I wish you didn't have to forget this…' The girl's eyebrows furrowed in confusion and before she knew it…. _

'_But you do…' …while she was looking at the lonely tears falling from Damon's eyes, Elena had forgotten everything. She remembered the feeling of emptiness that had taken upon her the moment she had remained alone in the room with her necklace in place, as if it had never left her neck…._

'_He tricked me… He made me forget…but why? Why did he _do_ this to me?' _Of course, Elena already knew the answer… and knowing only made it worse for her to bear all of this. Damon hadn't wanted to make her suffer by letting her remember. He didn't want the girl to ruin her relationship with Stefan because of his words – his sweet, loving words. Damon cared for his brother and had always respected him, and had never wanted to steal Elena from him. And knowing that only made Elena's heart even heavier, for she had finally realized that Damon had … _loved her_…. for _such a long time_…

'Elena, what happened?' Damon's worried voice sent Elena into shock as she picked herself up from the wooden floor in an inhuman speed. As the girl took in Damon's silhouette standing at the other side of the gazebo, she quickly regained her poise, trying to mask everything up. The girl automatically placed her right hand to her heart, for it was the place that was hurting her the most; she hoped that she wouldn't break in front of him again, though – not like this; and not now… Elena was suddenly woken from her thoughtful state as Damon's serious voice flooded her ears and her entire being.

'Did somebody hurt you?' Elena couldn't bring herself to talk; and Damon's soaked clothes that were shaping all of his muscles weren't helping the girl recover her voice either… Her only response – a small headshake - didn't convince Damon at all, so the vampire started taking baby steps towards Elena. He knew better than to come on her with full-blown force in the state that she was now in. He tried again, hoping that he would obtain an answer.

'Then what's wrong with you?' Seeing as the girl closed her eyes and continued shaking her head, Damon found himself helplessly trying to figure out what could have upset the girl in such a manner.

'Elena, please tell me…' It pained him to see her like this, especially since she had no reason to feel this way; at least, not today she didn't.

'I can't…' her feeble, pained tone made Damon wince; he felt like a small child who wasn't being told something. Just that, this time, it was something about Elena, the love of his life; it was _anything_ but a stupid game that he was playing. He continued to keep himself calm, in fear that she would close the door to him too soon.

'Why not, sweety?' Elena felt a tear come down her cheek at hearing his question.

'Because it's too late…' It had only been a whisper, and, for the first time, Elena had no idea if Damon had heard her.

'Don't be silly, it's never too late…' Seeing as Elena wouldn't give in, Damon started clenching his fists in frustration; he didn't think that he could keep his impatience in check any longer.

'Elena, if you don't tell me what this is about, then I can't understand… and I can't know how to help you…' Her answer seemed to come as a cry for help, although she was trying so hard to mask it.

'You can't help me, Damon; trust me – you don't want to know what this is about…' As she spoke, Elena directed her eyes towards Damon's and felt a shiver go down her spine as she caught a glimpse of the fire burning inside the vampire's reaction.

'You're _wrong_… I will _always_ want to know what's going on with you.' Elena's eyes became bigger as she understood the meaning behind his words. And just as Damon was beginning to lose hope, he heard a cracked voice, which was coming from Elena, break through the rain's thunder.

'Why, Damon?' she had spoken it clearly enough and Damon had understood her question, but he found himself more than puzzled. Elena turned her head towards him piercing his eyes, and repeated her question.

'_Why_ did you make me forget?' The second question was even more foreign to the vampire's ears. But the pain in her voice was clearly there; in less than a second, Damon found himself standing in front of a weeping Elena, looking for a way to comfort her. However, he couldn't resist his curiosity and simply asked:

'Forget _what_, honey?' As Damon started gently caressing Elena's wet cheeks, she weakly turned her head, releasing her skin from the tingling sensation that his touch was provoking.

'Don't… call me that; and don't touch me. Just…don't. Don't make it even worse than it already is.' Now Damon seemed to be the one hurt – like all of the other times that she had rejected him. His voice came out all confused this time.

'Elena_, what_ are you talking about?' A small pause came before Damon heard the girl answer.

'You ruined _everything_, Damon… Why did you make me forget? _Why_?'

The moment Elena turned her swollen eyes towards Damon, she felt her heart skip a beat as she saw the realization of her words splashed all over his face. A torrent of emotions swept across the vampire's face, making it impossible for Elena to decide what Damon was actually feeling – anger, surprise, helplessness or happiness… Elena couldn't tell, for she had never seen Damon react in this manner before; goose bumps appeared on her skin as the girl started wondering if she had done or said the right things. But who was she to be the judge of what was wrong and right anymore? It didn't even matter; the mess that they were now in was mostly because of her fault in the first place…

Elena came back to reality as she saw Damon's eyes change and the ancient mask coming down upon his face, hiding his true emotions. However, his usual strategy proved to be useless this time, for Elena heard Damon's pained voice weakly start.

'How did you find out?' It took Elena a long time before she answered in a weak tone.

'Does it even matter?' A sad smile escaped Damon's lips.

'You're right, it doesn't…' As Damon was shaking his head, he started again 'I'm so sorry, Elena… you were never supposed to find out about that evening.'

'Yeah, I figured _that one out_ all by myself…' the girl's sarcastic voice made Damon feel extremely sorry for what he had done to her.

'Look, we can pretend as if nothing ever happened; this doesn't have to change anything between us, Elena… We can stay friends… if you still want me in your life.' At hearing those words, Elena felt as if she had received a slap on the face and her voice came out a bit edgier than she had intended.

'Pretend that nothing ever happened? And…you want us to be _friends_? After all of… _this?_!'

'You've made it clear enough that it's all you want from me… So that's _all_ I'm asking for…'

'Who gave you _the right_ to take that memory away from me? 'Cause it certainly wasn't _me_, Damon…' Elena had involuntarily clenched her fists.

'I know I have no excuse for my actions…' It was all it took for Elena to explode.

'No, you _most certainly_ don't! Not even _the slightest bit_… You promised me, back in Atlanta, that you wouldn't use compulsion on me… You _promised_, Damon… How could you _do _that to me?'

'You'd never understand even if I explained…'

'Try me.' As if to prove her characteristic stubbornness, Elena folded her arms in front of her chest, waiting for Damon to answer.

'It doesn't matter anymore; just forget it ever happened…' Just as the vampire was about to turn and leave, Elena heard herself shout at him worse than she had ever done before.

'Damn it, Damon! Stop running away and tell me once and for all why you compelled me!' As Damon was slowly turning around to face the girl, Elena felt that she was going to run out of air; she didn't know how, but she felt that his answer would change everything for them. His eyes looked as if they had fought a battle for far too long…

'I didn't want to lose you again, Elena…' The girl felt her arms fall beside her body as the surprise of Damon's words kicked in. She found herself stuttering as the following sentence came out of her mouth.

'Why… would you lose me?' Damon's expression was something between sad, ironic and incredulous.

'Come on, Elena… we both know that you wouldn't have said yes to me. You loved _my brother_, you couldn't have possibly left him for anything in the world, let alone for _me_…'

'You didn't even wait to hear what I was going to say…' His response was quick and determined.

'It wouldn't have made any difference.'

'You don't know that.' Damon's face finally lost the mask, exposing how truly hurt he was.

'You're _wrong_….you still would have said no. I dare you to disagree!' The vampire had moved closer to Elena and was now standing right in front of her shivering body. As much as Elena wanted to prove Damon wrong, she couldn't lie to him about it; deep down she knew that she wouldn't have accepted him back then.

'See? Even you can't deny it...' His light blues seemed to gain even more pain as his fears were confirmed.

'Damon…'

'It's okay, Elena… I know. I've known all of this time and I'll know it for the rest of my life; you love Stefan… and it's always going to _be_ Stefan…' Elena felt her former desperation kick in as tears started falling again on her cheeks.

'You're…'

'Shhh…' Damon stopped her by placing his index finger on her lips and piercing her chocolate eyes. 'Don't try to make it all better for _my sake_; you don't need to. I can take the truth, I honestly can…' The vampire couldn't stop himself from caressing Elena's face for one last time. As the girl started trembling under his touch, Damon continued.

'I just wish I had been in my brother's place all of this time, that's all. He's really lucky to have you.' Tingles went down Elena's spine as Damon gently placed a kiss on her forehead, the same way he had done that night.

'You love Stefan and I think that it's time for me to back off and to let you finally be happy together. I'll be gone by tomorrow and… I promise you that you'll never have to see me again.' Elena couldn't control herself as the question popped out of her mouth in a desperate tone.

'You're…leaving?'

'There isn't any other way, Elena… Now that this Michael guy is gone after Klaus, I think I can be sure that you'll finally be safe. Especially since Stefan is here to protect you; I'm sure that he'll keep you safe… And you'll eventually get him on the right track and you'll have him back safe and sound; the old Stefan. I've never seen him fight as much as he's fighting for you; if he's gonna change for someone, it's gonna be you.' Elena couldn't believe her ears… her voice came out disappointed.

'After _everything_ that's happened, you're just… walking away?' Damon's expression held a bigger pain than he let on.

'I'm simply doing what I should have done a long time ago…' Taking in Elena's silence and hurt expression, Damon felt shattered on the inside. Just then, he heard a love song start playing in the ball room. Despite the rain's thunder, the beautiful verses could still be heard from outside.

_This Romeo is bleeding, but you can't see his blood._

'You promised, Damon… You _promised_ that you were never going to leave me again.'

Hearing the desperation and resentment in the girl's voice, Damon knew that he had lost his chance with Elena. And it broke his heart to actually realize that; the vampire had no idea what he would do, now that he'd lost her forever.

_It's nothing but some feelings that this old dog kicked up._

'I'm sorry, Elena, but it's the best thing I can do…'

Just as he was turning around to leave, Elena's voice made him stop dead in his tracks.

'Why are you doing this?' Damon couldn't hold it together any longer. He felt his vampire instincts kick in, his anger and frustration transforming into rage and the love for this girl growing even stronger than before, until it couldn't fit in his chest anymore.

_It's been raining since you left me, now I'm drowning in the flood…_

With the speed of light, the vampire was holding the girl in his arms, one hand encircled around her waist, pulling her as close as the distance between their faces would allow it, and the other gently holding Elena's hand in his.

_You see, I've always been a fighter, but without you I'd give up… _

The way that Elena's chocolate–brown eyes were piercing his made Damon forget about every promise that he'd made to his brother, to Elena and even to himself.

_I can't sing a love song like the way it's meant to be…_

'I'm doing this, because…'

_I guess I'm not that good anymore, but baby that's just me…_

Right there and right then he realized what he had to tell her, what he absolutely needed the girl to finally know, even though it would break his heart to say it out loud once more and to receive the same rejection from her. But she was his whole world and she had to know, once and for all…

'_And I…'_

'… I will love you, Elena, always…'

_And I'll be there forever and a day, always…_ _I'll be there till the stars don't shine and the words don't _

Elena felt her every cell in her body catch fire as she finally heard those words come out of Damon's mouth. In earnest, she had heard it all before; but it had never been like this. The first time she hadn't even remembered it until a few minutes before. And the second time had been on Damon's death bed, which hadn't been anything other than tragic. But now… Elena simply thought that her knees were going to give in from the intense emotions that were running through her body. The look in Damon's face told her that this was their last dance; she could feel it in Damon's every touch, in his voice, in the way he looked at her… That look – that said that she would forever be his one and true love, that he would never forget her, no matter what.

A few seconds later, Elena was shocked to find herself alone as Damon was slowly walking away from the wooden gazebo. Just as he was stepping outside in the heavy, cold rain, the girl's mind was flooded by his words.

'_I love you, Elena. And it is because I love you that… I can't be selfish with you. I don't deserve you, but my brother does…'_

_Take a look at my face, there's no price I wouldn't pay to sing these words to you… _

That moment, Elena finally knew… She knew that she would never forgive herself if she didn't say those words. Everything then felt as if it was happening in slow motion.

'Damon!' she desperately shouted after the vampire while she was running as fast as she could to catch him. Just as she saw Damon turning around to meet her eyes, Elena felt the words come out of her mouth, without knowing how she could even stand on her own feet, let alone talk.

'You're right… I probably would have said no back then…' The girl felt her hands starting to go numb as she was about to finally say the truth. The freezing rain was heavily pouring on her skin, making it even harder for her to speak.

'But… that _doesn't_ mean that… I would _still… _say no.' Seeing Damon's expression gradually change from confusion to disbelief, Elena hurried to finish saying everything that was bursting outside of her chest in fear that she would panic and flee.

'I know it's… too late…' Damon could literally feel her voice trembling and her entire body started shivering as well from the emotion of hearing the words that were about to come out of the girl's mouth.

'…so late to finally say it, but…' Tears started slowly going down her cheeks in little rivers and her heart sounded as if it was about to pop out of her chest.

'… _I love you_, Damon!'

Elena felt as if the seconds following her love declaration were the longest moments in her entire lifetime. And then she felt the air change and Damon was there, right in front of her, tightly holding her arms in his and staring at her as if it was the first time he'd ever seen her.

'Wh…what did you just say?' Elena's heart beamed with happiness as she saw the joy underlying Damon's reaction. She swallowed hard and a smile appeared on her wet face as she answered the man she loved…

'I _love you_, Damon Salvatore!' She truly, deeply did… 'I think I've _always_ loved you…' Elena felt her heart swell as she saw Damon's expression change. At first, the vampire probably thought that he was dreaming, because he looked as if he had been hit over by a train. But then, as realization kicked in, the vampire's features gradually changed from disbelief and confusion, to understanding and acceptance. But that was not what made Elena's knees melt – it was the happiness that had taken over Damon's each and every millimeter of skin; it was the loving look that he was giving her; but, most of all, it was the bliss that surrounded the moment in which he had realized that her words were true; that she truly did love him; that she was finally his and only his…

'Elena…' the girl felt her feet go weak as she heard his soft voice and saw a minuscule tear come down Damon's right cheek – proof of the emotions that he could no longer hold in. Elena heavily exhaled as Damon closed the gap between them, pulling her body so close to his, until they were almost glued to each other. Damon's velvet voice made Elena start to hyperventilate as he said:

'You can't imagine _how long_ I've been waiting for this moment…' Unable to resist her shivering, Elena closed her eyes as she saw Damon's face slowly closing the distance between them.

The next thing Elena knew was that Damon's soft mouth was gently capturing her lower lip and lovingly brushing his lips against it. She could feel each and every shred of the love that Damon had felt for her for such a long time. And to her surprise, this must have been the most innocent kiss which she had ever experienced. But, still, Elena found her entire body mercilessly brought to life as Damon continued his gentle treatment with her upper lip as well. The girl felt Damon smile as a soft moan escaped her mouth and a second later, his lips came crushing down upon hers in such a loving way which she had never imagined to be possible. The girl felt her toes curl up in response to Damon's kiss and she involuntarily raised her arms, grabbing fistfuls of hair and dragging Damon's face even closer to hers, until they couldn't tell where one started and the other one ended. Elena couldn't help but feel a tear fall down her cheek – she had finally found her way home; she finally felt that there was no other place in the world that she should be. Because Damon had been the one she had truly loved all of this time – and she could feel it in every kiss, every look and every touch that he had ever given her.

After a few seconds, which had been a lifetime spent in heaven, Elena felt Damon gently pull away so as to give her the chance to breath in and out. The moment he met her eyes, Damon knew for sure that he hadn't been dreaming. Because finally hearing those three words from Elena, kissing her sweet cherry-red lips, and knowing that she was only his was beyond anything that he had ever imagined. And he didn't want to leave Elena anymore, no matter how egoistic his actions would turn out to be. The vampire never wanted this feeling to end... For the first time in the past 145 years, Damon finally felt alive…

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><p><strong><em>Needless to say, I can't wait to hear what you guys think! Until next time :)...<em>**


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